the parable of the almond tree.

this morning I made my way over to Jeremiah and decided to begin reading from the beginning, and when doing so, I came to this verse:

"the word of the Lord came to me:

'what do you see, Jeremiah?'

'I see the branch of an almond tree,' I replied.

the Lord said to me, 

'you have seen correctly, for I am watching

to see that my word is fulfilled"

(Jeremiah 1:11-12)

naturally I then felt inclined to do a little research 

regarding almond trees.

(and by 'do a little research', i mean search wikipedia)

this is what i found,

Almond trees become productive and begin bearing fruit after five years.

 The fruit is mature in the autumn, 7–8 months after flowering

so when the Lord showed Jeremiah a vision of an almond tree,

and then asked him to confirm what he saw, it kind of reminds me of a parent-child conversation:

(maybe like this one...)

mom: "you need to finish ALL of your peas before you can have dessert.

ok so what do you have to do before you can have dessert?"

child: " finish all my peas"

mom: "ok now repeat back to me what you have to do"

child: "i have to finish all of my peas before i can have dessert"

the Lord didn't ask Jeremiah

to describe what he was seeing

because the Lord didn't know,

He asked Jeremiah to tell what He saw

because the Lord wanted Jeremiah

to realize that He is aware of the almond tree and 

it's bearing of fruit.

the Lord wanted Jeremiah to understand that 

the Lord does not forget about fulfilling His word.

if the almond tree bears fruit only after 5 years,

it would be really easy to become discouraged,

angry and feel forgotten by the Promise Maker.

Because it would be so easy to feel discouraged,  the Lord see "for i am watching to see that my word is fulfilled" Repetition or redundancy  is often used for emphasis.

My plans recently changed drastically and at the moment I have digressed from knowing exactly what and where i will be after graduation, to having not the slightest idea; this would not be how I saw things unfolding. So today, for the sake of not losing heart, it is imperative that i remember the almond tree.

"being confident of this,

that He who began a good work

in you

will carry it on to completion..."

(Philippians 1:6)

so to you who are feeling discouraged, forgotten, frustrated,

remember the almond tree.