You'd look good in green, really

I have been told I look good in the color green, actually you do too.From space the earth is the blue planet because over 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. So if you are travelling in space and are looking for water blue is a beautiful color. However, if you are like me then you have never looked for water in space (although I have been known to space out or get spacey), but I have looked for water on the earth and that’s when green is the color, especially in dry Don Pedro.A widow had called me because she was told her sewer line was broken. I had no idea where to begin digging, except for a small patch of green between the house and the septic tank – bingo. If during the driest part of summer you go up to the old Penon Blanco fire lookout you are not only treated to a magnificent view but you also can see exactly where the water is. In the distance you see the Merced river laying like a green snake on mat of straw, circles of green rimming even dried out ponds like oasis in the desert. Yes, green is a beautiful color in spite of the ancient Greeks and Shakespeare hitching it to envy and Americans associating it with money. And God’s word agrees, “The man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence indeed is the LORD, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (HCSB, also Psalm 1 and 2 Peter 1). Actually Jeremiah contrasts two different people, two different approaches to life, the person who trust in himself and his own strength vs. the person who trusts and relies on God. You already read God’s description of the latter it stands in contrast to what God says about the former, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” Jeremiah 17:5-6 (NIV).Green looks good on us, God thinks so. How green, how spiritually alive, how fruit-bearing we are is not related to our circumstances it is related to our trust and reliance on God. If you, based on your trust and dependence on God, would have to place yourself into the view from old Penon Blanco lookout where would you end up, where would we spot you? Out in the barren spots, the “wastelands” (some confuse church with God and Christ and dwell in the wasteland of a pew, a denomination, something other than a trusting, alive, faith relationship with God)?” or would you be right next to the river, next to the “living water” (John 7:38)?Have I told you that you would look really good in green?To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans