One day this past week, as part of the Useful Breath Bible-reading schedule (hop aboard at www.usefulbreath.com), I read a passage in Jeremiah, Chapter One, wherein God is showing the prophet different object lessons to teach him some truths. Two verses jumped out at me (scaring me just a bit, while waving their arms and shouting, "Booga-booga!"):
Jeremiah 1:11-12...
The word of the Lord came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?"
"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.
The Lord said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled."
A thinking person's first question might very well be, "What the farnsworth does the branch of an almond tree have to do with God being the Father-up-above-who-is looking-down-in-love-so-be-careful-little-hands-what-you-do?"
A footnote in my Bible has the answer: "The Hebrew for watching sounds like the Hebrew for almond tree."
So...God is a punster! He likes to play with words. And He uses the humor in such wordplay as a memory aid for the prophet Jeremiah. It would be like if He showed me a picture of Benedict Arnold and said, "I am a trader; taking your sins and giving you abundant life."
Okay, maybe not a whole lot like that.
The valid point to make here is that God was infinitely wise to do this whole thing with Jeremiah, the Junior Woodsman/Horticulturist, and not me. If He had asked me, "What do you see, Dewey?" I would have said, "A tree branch," and the whole object lesson would have been lost.
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