Praise.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord.

Psalm 150:6 (NIV)

I kept walking past the tree.  Then it registered.  I turned and looked again.  

A barren tree.  Only a gray trunk and gray branches.  Scraggly and thin.  But reaching to the sky.  

I walked back and stared up at this tree.  Much taller than me.  In it’s winter dress.  Gray.  Against the bright blue sky.  I looked up at it.  Stretching to the sky.  And it reminded me of praise.

This tree.  In the winter.  In spite of having its leaves striped and blown away by the wind.  Here it is.  Strong and waiting.  Waiting for the spring to come.  Waiting for the weather to warm.  Waiting for it’s time to bloom again.  Again.  

The more I stared, I saw something else instead.  I saw the branches as outstretched arms.  Up to the sky.  Up to heaven.  In praise.  

In the winter.  In the cold wilderness.  In the waiting.  Still hands up.  Palms up.  In praise.  

We have a choice.  In our winters.  In our cold wildernesses.  In our waiting.   And waiting.  And waiting.  Scraggly and thin.  Ready to break.  To reach to the sky in praise.  To hold our hands open in expectancy.  Expectant for the spring to come.  Expectant for the blooming that will come.   

I think we all come to this choice.  At some point.  Do we hold our hands up in praise?  Our palms up in expectancy?  Or do we bend and look towards the ground?  Give up.  Let the winter and cold and wilderness overtake us.  

In my winters of cold and wilderness, I’ve made both choices.  I’d love to say every time I held my hands up in praise and expectancy.  And there have been times I have done that.  But there have been many times.  Many times I have done the other.  I look to the ground.  The dirt.  And think I will be here forever.  Think when will this end?  

Lost in my thoughts, something caught my attention.  A support.  This tree.  Barren and scraggly.  With its thin branches.  At some point it was held up and supported.  There was something different about this support.  It had become part of the tree.  So much so that I almost missed it.  

“When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.  Aaron and Hur held his hands up-one on one side, one on the other-so that his hands remained steady till sunset.”

Exodus 17:12 (NIV) 

In those winters and cold wildernesses.  When we cannot hold up our hands in praise anymore.  When we are tired and weak.  Just like this tree.  God sends others to hold up our hands.  To support us.  Until we are strong enough to hold our hands up on our own.   

In the winter and cold and wilderness.  When we do not know when the spring and blooming and answers will come.  We are not alone.  God sends support.  God sends those to hold up our hands steady until the sunset.  Steady until we can praise and hold our hands up with palms open.  

Praise.