The Tree of Life and streams of Living Water."

Good morning, I pray that the day is finding you well.   I awoke extra early this morning.  The rain was making its music on the trees, in the river, and on my roof.  I made my coffee, which amounts to pushing a button since my wife had set everything up the night before which is an act of love that I truly appreciate.  Abe was excited to go outside, but he quickly remembered that he does not like rain very much and the bed was calling, he went in and went back to sleep.    I was sitting by the river; my house is on a river, something that I find very appealing and restful.  As I was saying, I was sitting by the river and I found myself looking through the branches of a tree at a portion of the river that was upstream.  My mind started to wander and my thoughts became filled with two things: The Tree of Life Living water It was not the normal “Tree of Life” stuff nor was it the normal “Living Water” stuff; although they both had streams within my thoughts.   As my eyes focused first on the tree and then on the river, my thoughts went with what I was focusing on.   As I focused on the tree, I saw ants scurrying up it and down it.  Some were carrying things others were not; ants are very busy creatures, they are always in motion.    As I watched them, I thought how busy they are.   As I watched them, I thought how our lives mimic the ants.    As I watched them, I thought how hard it is to see Christ, to see God in the busyness of our day.  Then my eye caught something.   My eye caught the space between the branches and the leaves.  My eyes left the ants; I no longer could see the work that they were doing.  What I could see was the river upstream.  I could see the water.    I began to ponder on the things of Christ.  How He commands us to love one another, to help those who cannot help themselves, to be in relationship with Him, to pray.    To remember what it is to follow Him.   As I looked through the tree, I could see the life giving water that flowed passed my house.  My thoughts went to, “How I have to look past the Tree of life to see the Living water.  I sat contemplating this for a long time.   We held a strategy meeting at our YMCA recently.  We are in the beginning phase of doing an expansion.  As we brainstormed and thought and brainstormed some more, we discussed at great length different programming and what the YCMA could offer.  During the session, we started to think in terms of, “If we do this, we cannot do that.”  After a while we started to ask the question, “Does it have to be an either or proposition, or could we look at it as an, and also?”    Our focused changed and we were able to see the possibilities that we could become something much bigger, something much more impactful; we started to think outside the box.   This morning as I sat by the river, my focus began to change.  Suddenly I was able to see both the Tree of Life and the Living Water at the same time; I no longer had to spend time focused on one area, than shift my focus to another.    I was able to focus on both at the same time.   Isn’t that what Christ is asking us to do?  Isn’t He asking us to not compartmentalize our relationship with Him but to get to the point where we can see Him in the monotony of our day?   The Tree of Life and streams of Living Water.   Blessings,   Roger Chaplain