Flourish Like A Palm Tree

 

My husband recently got orders to be an instructor at The U.S. Army Ranger School for the next few years. It’s the swamp phase of the course and it just so happens to be in Florida!! A very lucky job to get, and yet I don’t believe it was luck at all. I have literally prayed for over a year that he would get it, and even hearing God tell me we would. Anyways that’s another story for another day. 

But back to what I did come to say… 

WE ARE MOVING TO FLORIDA!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED. We will be living only 15 minutes from the Fort Walton beach front and can’t wait for all the fun adventures we will get to have living there. 

And yet, sooo many times I’ve mentioned to someone we are moving there I get responses like this:

“Are you not scared of the hurricanes?”

“ Oh that will be fun, EXCEPT during hurricane season.”

Way to try to hurt my excitement.  Except it didn’t. It just reminded me of this beautiful bible verse my heart discovered a couple years ago….

Psalm 92:12 “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree..”

A verse I’m sure I read over a couple times before, but it had never spoke to me like it did that day a couple years ago.

It is also one I’ve never heard referenced before which I thought odd because after researching it, it truly is a beautiful verse and now one of my favorites. 

Upon reading it I remember immediately thinking, “Why a palm tree?” 

Of course they are beautiful trees. But for a righteous person to be compared to one I knew it must be much more than that. For we know from 1 Samuel 6:7 that the Lord doesn’t look at outward appearance of people but at their heart. Therefore it had to be more than the palm trees beauty.

So I went to Google. (Because where else do we go for all life’s mysterious questions? Haha.) And what I found was really really beautiful! 

One scientific study I found on palm trees said that they are the ONLY tree that gets stronger after storms. During hurricanes the wind blows them 45 degrees almost touching the ground in which they appear they are about to snap, but they don't. In fact, instead of breaking during a storm, studies show the storm actually makes the palm tree stronger.

Wow!! I immediately understood. Because as a Christian I have experienced this countless times in my life. Where the storm made me stronger. 

How many times have I gone through a rough situation or season in my life where I have been down and maybe even could have let it break me in ways. Yet with God, I grew from it. I got stronger because of it. 

No matter where you live though, you will face your own “hurricanes.” Your own storm will come. You will face hardship and heartbreak and feel like you are on the verge of breaking just like the palm tree during the hurricane.

Turn to God. 

God can and will use your bad circumstances for you to draw near to him. God doesn’t promise bad things won’t happen (John 16:33) but he promises to never leave you and help you through them. (Isaiah 41:10, Deuteronomy 31:8)

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” Draw near to him and let him strengthen you like only he can. Be a palm tree in the storm.