Broken Branches

Micah 6:1-8
1 Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. 3 "O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord." 6 "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Reflection
I look out of my second floor office window and I see broken, separated branches clinging to the tree from which they have been separated. Life no longer flows to these broken branches from the source of life that the tree has to offer. Yet... these branches cling to a Y in the tree. They cling only to be blown and separated at some time. Perhaps the wind will not blow them loose and the leaves of life will no longer be present in the dead wood of the broken branches.

The broken and separated branches are witness to my thoughts on scripture. These very branches see me through the glass of the window, pondering God's meanings in scripture. Broken branches that hear my cry to God... why of Lord? What dear God would you have me do after this reflection on your Word. Broken and dead branches that hear my prayers for family, nation, friends and myself as I walk through this life. Dead branches that are there as I question what God would have me offer to him, the creator of all things.

In the passage above, God has the people witness to the mountains the controversies that God's people bring before God. Not unlike the dead and broken branches that are witness to the goodness God has freely given me. God has brought me forth from my sinfulness and given me life. God has taken me in, as an illegal alien, into his family and chosen me and marked me with the cross of Christ forever. God accepted me in my broken, dead and separated state of being and God made me wonderful in his sight.

The broken, dead, illegal alien that I am has been redeemed. What does God want from me? I see it above... God wants me to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with him and those he graciously gives to me in my life. Me... the broken... the dead... the separated branch that I see outside the window of this second floor upper room. God has saved me and requires me to love the separated, the illegal alien, the dead, the broken, the neighbor that God will give to me. In this I am deeply humbled. Yes... God has promised to graft me in to his life giving eternal life of love for all creation.

Thanks be to God that hung on that dead wood of a cross, broken wood, separated wood, yet wood that only Jesus could bring to life in his suffering, death and resurrection. God has made that dead and separated wood the symbol of the gift of eternal life through Jesus. Yes! Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Lord, lead me as I humbly do the work that you require... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen

Music