LEAVES THAT NEVER WITHER

 

                      

In 1921 two young couples from Sweden answered Gods call to be missionaries to Belgian Congo in Africa.  When David and Svea flood and Joel and Bertha Erickson arrived at the mission station, they literary hacked their way with machetes into the interior. In the villages they were told “we can’t allow any white people here, our gods will be offended”. The weary families had no choice, they settled in the jungle and build mud huts.

Because of diseases and loneliness, after six months, the Ericksons decided to return to the mission station. Svea could not travel because she was pregnant with her second child and had malaria.  For several months Svea endured raging fever. During that time, she witnessed to a little boy who came from a nearby village to sell chicken and fruits to the family. As Svea spoke to him, he simply smiled. She didn’t know if he understood the message that she tried to communicate to him.

Svea delivered a healthy baby girl, Aina, on April 13^th 1923. Delivery was exhausting and she was already weak from bouts of malaria. After seventeen desperate days of prayer and struggle after Aina ’s birth, Svea died. Inside David something snapped in that moment, his heart full of bitterness. As he stood beside his twenty seven years old wife grave, he looked down at his two year old son. Then he heard his baby daughter‘s cries from the hut.

Bitterness filled his heart; he flew into a rage, crying, ‘Why did you allow this God? My wife was so beautiful, so talented and now she dies at twenty seven. I have a two year old son I can hardly care for, let alone a baby girl. After more than a year in this jungle, all we have to show for it is one little village boy who probably doesn’t understand what Svea told him”.

David took his children to the mission station. When he saw the Ericksons he blurted out angrily, “I’m leaving! I am taking my son with me back to Sweden, but I am leaving my daughter here with you”. David arrived in Stockholm and went into import business. He warned those around him never to mention God in his presence. Shortly after David left and within three days of each other, the Ericksons died.  Aina was given to American missionaries.

Forty years later Aina traveled to Stockholm to try to locate her father. She fell to his side crying “Daddy I am the little girl you left behind in Africa”.  Tears formed in his eyes “I never meant to give you away; I just couldn’t handle both you and your brother.”  “That’s okay daddy, God took care of me”. His face became tight, “God didn’t take care of you. He led us to Africa and then betrayed us. Nothing came of our time there. It was a waste”.

A short time before her visit, Aina had received a Swedish magazine that told the story of her mother; it showed a picture of her grave and told of how her life and death had influenced the spread of the gospel in Congo. Aina told her father the story so that he could see their mission to Africa as not in vain. Then she sang hymns and prayed with him. He recommitted his life to Christ.

Soon after that meeting he died. Moment before death, he was heard speaking in Swahili. It seemed like God took him back to Africa before taking him home to heaven. When visiting London a few years later Aina was introduced to Ruhigita, the superintendent of the Pentecostal church in Congo.

 Out of curiosity Aina asked “did you ever know missionaries David and Svea flood?” “Yes” he answered “Svea led me to Christ when I was a boy”. Ruhigita was the African boy, the only person in Congo Svea flood had led to Christ. From that one boy thousands of others were reached for Christ (A sad defeated story- David and Svea flood).

In Psalm 1:2-3 we read that the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord is like a tree planted by streams of water, whose leaf does not wither. This is a lively emblem of vitality and splendor. He is not a reed moved about by every wind which blows. He is not a creeper trailing along the ground. He is not a rootless cut-flower that is beautiful for a while but will soon die. He is a tree growing upright and heavenward.

No particular kind of tree is referred to in the passage. But in Psalm 92:12-14 the righteous are compared to flourishing palm trees and cedars of Lebanon which stay fresh, green and fruitful even in old age. In Isaiah 61:3 they are called “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, for the display of his splendor”. These trees have not only survived many droughts and storms but they stand strong and beautiful.

In Ezekiel 31:3-9 Assyria is compared to a cedar in Lebanon. Streams flow all around its base and roots go down to abundant waters making it grow tall.  It towers higher than all the trees of the field. Birds nest in its boughs, wild animals give birth under its branches; the great nations live in its shade. 

Majestic in beauty the other trees cannot rival it; no tree can compare with its branches or match its beauty.  God endowed it with beauty that made it stand out among all other trees in the garden, for his own glory. Assyria was noted not only for its power but also its beauty and broad reach of its influence.

When a man is rooted in the word of God, the living word pervades his whole life, imparting its beauty to everything. His spiritual beauty is not something that is put on, it’s an integral part of him, which he never for a moment divests himself. He aims that not a single leaf on his tree of righteous living shall show signs of death and dryness.The drought that dries up other streams leaves his still full, fresh and flowing.  

A strong and stable Christian is beautiful to behold in the deserts of life. He has an extensive invisible root network that go deep and wide into the word of God. He is familiar with all the books of the Bible. He does not rely on a few common or famous verses. He knows that depending on the season of life, a much needed teaching, rebuke, correction, training , equipping for the task at hand, can be located in any book of the Bible.

He is very familiar with the Bible. He as many Scriptures as possible written in the tablet of his heart (2 Cor. 3:2-3). A verse he needs at a particular moment may be located in the least famous books of the Bible, yet the Holy Spirit will point it out to him. If it’s in the part of the Bible that he does not read, there will be a communication breakdown and he will think that Heaven is silent. God has promised to make everything (every season) beautiful in its time (Ecc. 3:11) but we must do our part.

A man who is anchored in God lives a consistent life. He is always full of energy and lively. He has a hidden source of strength and beauty. That beauty is seen in his peaceable and satisfying life. His beautiful life gives irrefutable testimony to the invisible God. His unfading beauty and freshness virtually “shout” that there is a God is Heaven who takes care of his own.

Spending time with a person provides an opportunity to truly come to know and get influenced by that person.  Many psalms of David reflect a confident familiarity with God because he spent much time alone with God.  Anytime Moses entered the Lord’s presence his face would be radiant when he came back (Exodus 34:29-35). Time spent with God may only be known by you and God, but the resulting beauty is evident to all.

Every believer will out of necessity go through storms (Acts 14:22). A deep and firmly rooted believer may face fierce storms but he will not break (2 Cor.4:7-9). The curve balls of life are unable to knock him off course. He knows God promises “the righteous will never be uprooted” (Prov.10:30) and “when you pass through the waters I will be with you and ...the rivers they will not sweep you over” (Isa 43:2). He takes God at his word and by patience possesses his soul (Luke  21:19).  

All the trees look alike when the sun is shining or a gentle rain is falling but let the mighty storm with fierce rain and howling wind pass through. The difference is apparent. You will not know how good your root system is until the storms of life crash against you. Only then will you discover the strength of your spiritual foundation. The only way to be ready for the storm is to spend time making your foundation strong.

The Lord's trees are all evergreens and beautiful. They are unaffected by the weather. When other trees are withering and dying, his trees stands out as an island of life in the sea of deadness. A countryside covered with luxuriant green trees is a beautiful sight. This is what Jesus intended his Church to look like.