Fw: the humble leaf

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2016 7:42 AM
Subject: the humble leaf

Bright green leaves of spring introduce the season with welcome color after the drabness of winter.  These young leaves are not fully mature and are lighter to allow more light to pass through and assist them to become dark with chlorophyll for the summer season.  It's humbling to consider the complexity of a leaf.  They are actually organs of life for the tree.  They receive and provide nutrients from and to the roots and trunks and generate food, transfer gases, and absorb water.  Like people, they have layers of "skin"... an outer protective layer called the epidermis, a middle layer where the photosynthesis takes place and veins to carry food to and from the leaf to the tree.  The design of the leaf is all about life for the tree.  The leaf is the interface that transforms light into food and releases waste products back to the air.  It takes many many leaves to support a tree and when they have run their course for a season they fall to earth and feed the soil as well.

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The Lord is the author of life.  He transforms light...the light of His truth becomes food to sustain us.  He provides shade for us as well and gives all we need for growth, thirst quenching and the exchange of unhealthy content within our hearts and minds for the clean.  A leaf is both humble and sophisticated, by His design.  We are also humble and yet we were designed with great complexity that we might live and grow to maturity for the season of our days.  The elements of life come together in the leaf and they come together within us as we allow His light to wash over and penetrate within.  We need this direct interface with the Lord to live...just as the tree needs its leaves.

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Proverbs 11:²⁸ Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,
    but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.

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blessings,

Rob Smith