This past weekend, Terry and I traveled to Massachusetts to attend the wedding of our daughter’s best friend, Leah. While in Leominster, MA (the city in which I pastored for 15 years), we visited the church and had a great time of fellowship with the pastor and his wife. Just outside the window of the office I used to occupy, there is a beautiful white birch tree. When I first arrived there in 1995, this tree was about my height. Now, the tree is 25- to 30-feet high with wide branches and abundant leaves! Often, when I was meditating or studying for a sermon, I would look out the window at this tree and consider Psalm 1:1-3: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.” The birch tree reminded me of the power of faithfulness and consistency. Even though I could not “see” the tree growing each day, I knew that growth was taking place because it remained rooted in good soil and received the blessing of sunlight and water. The promise in Psalm 1 is that fruitfulness follows faithfulness!  My prayer for you, God’s people, is that you practice faithfulness and consistency daily by staying close to the Lord in prayer and by reading and thinking about God’s Word. Simply receive the grace and blessings God provides each day, and you won’t have to worry if you’re growing or not. Your life will be like a tree that increasingly spreads as time goes by. Jesus faithfully fulfilled God’s will each day, and His presence and power lives in you! Stand firm in Him…and you will keep growing!

Pastor Mark Boucher