by Pastor Douglas Brauner
…but Grace Is Stronger.
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
Permit me to rant.
Getting older stinks! Or, as us old farts say, “What’s so golden about the Golden Years?” I take two prescription meds to help me deal with my back pain, three heart meds two of which are related to keeping my blood pressure stable. I take medication to keep my acid reflux in check and to top it off, I take meds to help me sleep.
Then there are the regular trips to the bathroom, daily afternoon naps (not complaining), and the fact that I must work twice as hard to keep my weight in check. Every year my life looks more like this old Cottonwood tree. Gravity pulls these limbs closer to the ground from which it rose. I must admit that “gravity” is pulling closer to the dust from which I came.
“But [the Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
2 Corinthians 12:9 English Standard Version
I’m also the happiest that I’ve been in my life. When everything would seem to be working against me, I hear the whisper of God’s grace more strongly. I see that grace in my family and especially in my wife as we spend more time together traveling and hanging out at home. I find that grace in God’s Word as I’m able to spend more time in my morning devotions because, well, I have more time to spend in the Word.
I look at this Cottonwood tree in two ways; I see it both as my approaching death and as a call to bow in humility to the wonder of God’s grace. Yes, I still deal with anxiety but getting closer to standing in the presence of the Lamb is wonderful! God’s grace is stronger than gravity.
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Pastor Doug – Excellent!!! Hit me right where I live and walk!!! Thank you! YBIC, Oly
You’re welcome. I have more aches and pains than I’ve ever had, but I also sense God’s grace at work in me more than I have.
Cottonwood is my favorite tree. It’s native in the part of South Dakota I was raised, right where God planted me. Its seeds need to be drowned and born by being covered with water(baptized?) Its wood grain is not straight but twisted to withstand the winds and storms of life. It lives to be over 100. When traveling thru the life on the prairie it is the marker to tell you the way.
1 Kings 19:11-13 Listen to God’s voice in the gentle rustling of the leaves. It is good for your body, soul and spirit.
You mention that the Cottonwood tree can live to be 100, right behind me, where I took this picture, is “Grandpa Cottonwood.” It is estimated to be over 159 years old. I’m think of writing a devotion of a picture I took of its trunk. Thank you, Carl, for your comments and the Scripture!