Pastoral Ponderings— One drip at a Time…
Maple tapping like I was talking about last week, is a brief, intense time of year at the end of winter for that short time that conditions are just right, where everything happens right on top of each other. This is year two of our maple tapping experiment, and we’re thoroughly enjoying the lessons we’re learning about tapping trees, the sweet end result, as well as the way the tasks associated with tapping push us to slow down and get out into God’s great world.
The other day when I was out collecting what is likely the last sap for the season from some of our trees, I got to thinking that if Jesus would have had maple trees in His neighborhood, He just might have had a parable or two based on tapping or making syrup. The parable oozing out at me today had to do with the collecting process.
To collect the good stuff, as I mentioned last time, first you’ve got to tap into the right kind of trees. As much as I love our walnut and oak trees, you’re not gonna get much maple sap out of those trees no matter how many taps you put in! And secondly, even when you do tap into the right trees, it is still an art of quiet patience. Too often we wait for the big and dramatic to be a sign of God’s voice—but just like with God’s “still, small voice,” there’s also nothing big, loud or dramatic about making syrup. The sap you collect is just a small bit at a time that, if you’re patient and keep your taps in, the little drips eventually build up to enough to make for quite the blessing.
How often are we too impatient to just wait for the sweet stuff that God has to share and bless us with? Or, we only see a little drip of blessings, and that little bit leads us to think it not much of a blessing after all, or not enough to make it worthwhile to wait for more? Be thankful every time your mouth is watering for real maple syrup that somebody out there cultivated the patience and trust that those little drips would eventually add up in big and tasty ways!
The assurance that little drips of blessings build up to so much more of God’s sweet grace for those who practice the art of quiet patience, these are wonderful clues from the maple trees to how God works to bring the Good Stuff into our lives. Sure, sometimes God works in dramatic, glorious ways, but count the number of times we see that happening in the Bible as compared to the number of years of God’s quiet, small drips of blessings, and you might be surprised! And if we’re called to be Christlike, might this be a clue, too, that the blessings we share with others might more often be shared in small doses?
Keep being a blessing—one drip at a time! Pastor Jim