The Pines were Whispering........

One summer, my school system "strongly suggested" that I (along with several colleagues) enroll in a SCIENCE INSTITUTE workshop that was being offered in my area.  It was a two-week course, which seems like an eternity for a teacher who is off for a much-needed summer break.  By the time the course ended, however, I was REALLY GLAD that I had been able to participate, for I carried away with me literally tons of new ideas and information.

One thing that I learned - quite accidentally (in other words, not a part of the course) was that there are several varieties of pine trees in our area.  Now I knew that varying species existed (at least in name), because I'd heard those names tossed around by people who are associated with the enterprise of "knowing their trees."  The part that was foreign to me, however, was that there are so many varying physical attributes among the list of species - like needle length, pine cone size, and bark thickness and texture.  Let me get more specific by jumping into the heart of this recollection.

This guy (in my summer class) brought to one of the gatherings a branch from a long-leaf pine.  It was a sizeable branch - what we science folk would label "a superior specimen."  I couldn't believe my eyes.  The needles (or leaves) on this branch were ENORMOUS - even COLASSAL, if you will.  It was nothing like I had ever seen before.  The few pine trees that I had been around and noticed over the course of my lifetime had needles that were a good 2/3 shorter in length.  There were no pine trees in my yard as I was growing up, only carefully placed trees and shrubs and two HUGE oak trees (that literally came with the place - the house was built under their protective shade).  I'd seen pine trees in the various parks around town, but who pays attention to such things?  After all, a pine tree is a pine tree is a pine tree.  Not so, friends.

Everyone assembled (literally EVERYONE) laughed hysterically at me, astonished that I was being completely serious and that such a detail had escaped me as a "born and raised, card-toting child of Southwest Georgia."  They declared that there were longleaf pines ALL AROUND ME.  One lady even said to me, "There are literally hundreds of longleaf pines on plantation property that span both sides of the highway that leads into Thomasville via Highway 84, East."  And then it hit me.  Number one: How do you really notice something that you're whizzing by in your car at almost 60 miles/hour?  Number two: How do you really notice something for which you have the least amount of care?  The rich diversity of pine trees is lost to the casual observer who is on the "bullet train" through life (always speeding towards something of "greater" importance).  To all the tree-huggers of the world, this has got to be a "crying shame."

But such a remembrance forces my mind to attend to an aspect of my daily life that is far more important than tree varieties.  Hold a spiritual mirror to the observation above and you will find a clear reflection of something that is oh-so burdensome to the heart of God.  We typically fly through our lives with such GREAT speed and LITTLE care that we are hardly cognizant of the fact that all around us lies a plethora of circumstances that perplexes the minds of our fellow man and tears away at the heart of our Creator God.  We are acutely aware of other how people talk to us and treat us, or of how we perceive things.  Even in the church - a place set aside for the absolute and pure worship of our Heavenly King - we notice such minute details as:
- what the preacher is wearing
- how much the choir director sweats
- how we "got" nothing from the service
- how some visitor (like visitor is a four-letter word) took OUR pew
- how the carpet in the sanctuary needs to be replaced - it's so 80s
- how the organ was too loud
- how the temperature was all wrong
- how the church allows sinners to come into the congregation
- how the deacons and ushers allowed that "homeless looking" man to enter our presence
............and literally, the list goes on and on and on and on.  But you see, all these observations are being made while literally MILLIONS in this world are dying and GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL!!!!!!!  And yes, as a Christian, I am astonished that such magnanimous and glaring details escape the sight of all professing "born and raised, card-toting children of THE ALMIGHTY GOD!"

If Christians, then, value the souls of their fellow-men MORE than themselves and their personal interests, if they look upon salvation as a matter of eternal moment, considerations of humanity (independently of any regard to the glory of God) would urge them to labor and toil and pray and strive for the success of the Gospel.  It is the only hope of a sinking world; it is in the hands of Christians, and they are required to proclaim its glad tidings of hope and pardon and mercy to every creature.  Shall they not strive, then, with earnest, unanimous, steady, persevering efforts for the recovery of their race?  Is there a man or woman (our Southwest Georgia good boy) who professes to have the spirit of the Savior that would wish to be exempt from a work like this?  Is there one who would excuse himself from the delightful task of hastening on the latter-day glory of the Church?  This is an age of great enterprises.  NONE are too humble or too poor to labor for the Savior.  All have some influence, all have some work assigned them, and it is the duty of all to be just in that part of the field which the Redeemer has allotted to them.  May we all be found of Him in well doing -- faithful, laborious and devoted servants, such as the Lord will delight to honor!

Let us, therefore, try in our daily strivings to slow down (for the bullet train is not the only way to travel) and let our eyes and ears literally perceive the cries of the lost and dying.

Throw out the life line across the dark wave;
There is a brother whom someone should save;
Somebody’s brother! O who then will dare
To throw out the life line, his peril to share?

Throw out the life line with hand quick and strong:
Why do you tarry, why linger so long?
See! he is sinking; oh, hasten today
And out with the life boat! away, then away!

Throw out the life line to danger fraught men,
Sinking in anguish where you’ve never been;
Winds of temptation and billows of woe
Will soon hurl them out where the dark waters flow.

Soon will the season of rescue be o’er,
Soon will they drift to eternity’s shore;
Haste, then, my brother, no time for delay,
But throw out the life line and save them today.

This is the life line, oh, tempest tossed men;
Baffled by waves of temptation and sin;
Wild winds of passion, your strength cannot brave,
But Jesus is mighty, and Jesus can save.

Jesus is able! To you who are driv’n,
Farther and farther from God and from Heav’n;
Helpless and hopeless, o’erwhelmed by the wave;
We throw out the life line, ’tis “Jesus can save.”

This is the life line, oh, grasp it today!
See, you are recklessly drifting away;
Voices in warning, shout over the wave,
O grasp the strong life line, for Jesus can save.

Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line!
Someone is drifting away;
Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line!
Someone is sinking today.

Selah (סֶלָה )