The Ent

 Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.  Psalm 27:14...."God values drawing out our interactions with Him into a piece of artwork. He's writing an epic poem in our lives, and we'll miss Him if we have a Post-it note mentality." Chris Tiegreen

I love Tolkein's Lord Of The Rings trilogy, both in book and movie. In a story full of interesting characters, some of the most interesting as well as mysterious and frustrating are the Ents. They were treelike beings charged with caring for the forests of Middle Earth. The most noted of them in the book and movie was Treebeard. In the story, the battle for Middle Earth between the forces of the incarnate evil of Sauron and the free people of Middle Earth is raging. Two Hobbits, Merry and Pippin have made the acquaintance of Treebeard, and are hoping to enlist his help against the wizard Saruman. To this end, Tree Beard calls together all the Ents to discuss the prospect of joining in this war. Merry and Pippin expect a quick decision. They don't get it as the Ents discussion goes on and on. With all patience lost and his frustration boiling over, Merry pleads for a decision to be made and for the discussion to end. Treebeard responds by telling him that the Ents have just finished saying hello to each other and that Ents "never say anything unless it takes a very long time to say."  In one of his wonderful devotionals, Chris Tiegreen writes of how so often, God, in His dealings with us seems very much like an Ent, and we, in response, very much like Merry and Pippin.

Tiegreen writes, "His dealings with us are usually a process. A lengthy one." We live in a fast food, fast service, fast everything culture. We struggle with delay. We want everything now, including growth not only in our relationships, but in ourselves. We want to get to where we want to go immediately. God understands what a cost that would be to our spiritual, emotional, and mental development. God always has the long game in mind. We want to go for the quick win right now. When we converse with Him, we tend to do so with quick summaries of what we're after. God is after us. He's not nearly so interested in what we want as what He wants us to be, and what He wants for us. He's willing to spend a lot of time getting us to see and understand this. We, like Merry, cry out for Him to do something. He patiently answers, if we'll hear Him, that He is. The Scripture that comes to mind here is God speaking through His prophet saying, "I am doing something that you would not understand if I told you." 

Many have compared God's working through our lives with the making of a rich and beautiful tapestry. Two things about the process are true. No one can see by looking at the back of the tapestry what is being woven in the front. The other is that any truly beautiful tapestry requires painstaking skill to weave. The master worker weaves themselves into the tapestry itself. Cheap tapestries are easily found. Masterpieces are not. The Father is always in the process of creating masterpieces. His desire is that we be one of them. But we have to yield to the process.

Merry and Pippin never heard the conversation of the Ents, but they did see the result. The Ents defeated the might of Saruman and his Isengard fortress. What had become the evil filth of Isengard was cleansed by the work of the Ents. It was worth the process. The Father is at work to do the same in us and through us. The delays and seeming side trips in that process can frustrate us, try us, but if we will yield to Him, trust Him, He will make a masterpiece of us and other masterpieces through us. Even now, He weaves Himself into our lives and through them. He'll write no Post-it notes for us. He'll pen beautiful prose and poetry. Epistles of His love and life. And as He does so, we'll come to hear, understand, and love His language. And we will love God the Ent, who speaks in ways we've always longed to hear, but never did....until now.

Blessings,
Pastor O