INSPIRASUNS

The preparations for our building project have continued this week. Yesterday was a hodgepodge of things, all of which needed to be addressed. We got our youth room set up for our young acolytes to get ready for service on Sunday (they used to do this in the loft of the church). Vestments not being used were laundered and neatly packed away in tubs, (yes, those sturdy black tubs with yellow lids I mentioned several blogs ago).

We met in the parish hall to literally lay out what furniture would be where. Cardboard cutouts for the organ, moving chairs to where the choir would be positioned, a table to simulate where the large organ speaker would sit, yes, it was an interesting exercise, but one that needed to be completed.

We made our way to the children’s courtyard to see if the shade awning we had purchased would cover this beautiful area that faces the water. We were pleasantly surprised to find it would do just fine, turning this area into our waterfront worship space on Sunday mornings during the season.

It was a whirlwind of a day, and I was feeling tired, but I felt really good about all the things our team accomplished together. I got a call from my boss shortly after he left for the day, asking me if I would meet him out by our healing garden. “Uh oh, I thought, what was wrong out there?” I headed out back, wondering what was up.

When I got there, he was smiling and said joyfully, “I can’t believe it, I’ve been waiting forever to show people this!” I looked around, wondering what the heck he was talking about. He called me over to the tree near where he was standing, and with arms wide open, he said, “Look, what do you see?” I looked at the tree, then to the water behind it, hmmm, I thought. He exclaimed, “Look at the olives!” Sure enough, the olive tree had bunches and bunches all over the branches. We have several olive trees on our property, and as we moved to the others, they too had bunches all over them. This has never happened in the almost 20 years he has been there.

He went on to share that his hope is these olives can be harvested and appropriately processed into olive oil. The oil will be blessed and used in our special services like a Baptism, our Wednesday healing service, or during last rites. Man, how special is that! Our own olive trees, producing fruit to make the very oils we use during the most special services we have.

Just a side note: some interesting facts about the symbolism of the olive tree. It’s a symbol of friendship and reconciliation, cleansing and healing, light, victory and richness, and, above all, a sign of peace. It is a plant which should be treated with reverence as it holds many spiritual gifts.

I’ve walked by these trees almost every day and never noticed the fruit. I don’t know if they just started to produce this last week or if I’ve just been blind. I think the Lord opened our eyes to them yesterday as a sign. As we worked on so many things yesterday related to the demolition of the church, I think He gave us a sign. The olive trees bearing fruit; cleansing and healing, light, victory and richness, and…peace. All will be ok.

Have a good day, friends. Thanks for letting me share my ramblings. Lots of emotions these days around our little church 🙂 .

Genesis 8:11
And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.