The Walnut, August 30 Daily Reflection

 

A walnut

Spencer, my seven year old has the eyes of an eagle. He spotted this opened walnut in the grass and brought it to me. The seed fits so perfectly into the shell. I enjoyed placing it back inside the shell fitting it like a little puzzle. When the seed sat inside it was protected by the thick wood of the shell but out of the shell it was fully exposed to the little claws of approaching squirrels and the possibility of sinking into the ground and becoming a tree one day. Yet, in my hands it was safe from both natural consequences.

Often times in life we feel overexposed like the walnut out in the middle of the field just waiting to be eaten away bite by bite by the sharp teeth of life. We sit upon our lives and wonder if we will sink into the depths of our despair or if we will ever recover into a new life of some type.  It was much safer in our shells; the family that formed us when we were children cared for and protected by our parents. Now as grown adults most of us serve as the shell for our children, protecting, and supporting the maturity of our little seeds in this life. We however are now the mature seed. What will become of us in our lives?

The nature of life no matter how diligently we try to avoid it will occur. We are only flesh and bones and at some point in time we will go back to the ground just like the fate of the walnut. The question remains then what about during our life here on earth?

I choose to put myself into the palms of God’s hands and let Him put me where He wants me. He keeps me on the right path. There will always be the squirrels in our lives that will eat away at our souls, gossiping about others, tearing people down but we have to be strong and not tear down others. There will always exist despair and an uncertainty of life, we have to hold on to the priority of this life given to us by God to love one another as God has loved us. We are just a seed exposed to the world in all its evil as well as glory. If we like Spencer with his keen eye sight spot God then we need to ask Him to hold us in the palm of His hands so that we may be guided by Him and not the hands of this world.

“I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name”

Isaiah 49:16

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