I was walking one morning and stood near an old pine tree. I noticed it was dripping sap. I then notice some interesting drips of drying sap. Of course I had to touch the sap. I tried wiping it off but it was sticky. I accidentally touched my face and it got on my upper lip and was sticky. I then ended up touching the sap on my face with my tongue and started tasting the pine sap. I went home and gave my wife a kiss on the top of her head and knew the hair would stick to my lip. She said " what are you doing? Are you biting my hair?" I then explained the glimpse, although she just starred at me.
I thought about how we should be overflowing with thankfulness to the extent it comes out of us, all over in everything we do. And the love and our "habit of thankfulness" we share and express should be like sappy hands that stick to you and rubs off on those with whom we talk and live.
" If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root," (Rom 11:17)
I thought about how we should be overflowing with thankfulness to the extent it comes out of us, all over in everything we do. And the love and our "habit of thankfulness" we share and express should be like sappy hands that stick to you and rubs off on those with whom we talk and live.
I thought more about overflowing thankfulness and how I need to grow and have this more grafted into my life.
" If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root," (Rom 11:17)
I also thought about how the sap was nourishing for the tree and is it's life giving substance. Similarly, once we receive Christ we have life and we need to continue to be nourished by this Life in us to strengthen us in faith for the journey.
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Col 2:6)
"There is a sense in which gratitude and faith are interwoven joys
that strengthen each other. As gratitude joyfully revels in the benefits of
past grace, so faith joyfully relies on the benefits of future grace. Therefore
when gratitude for God’s past grace is strong, the message is sent that God is
supremely trustworthy in the future because of what he has done in the past. In
this way faith is strengthened by a lively gratitude for God’s past
trustworthiness. "(John Piper)
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