Acorns & Dreams

The gentle autumn breeze softly rustles the red and gold leaves still hanging by the branch of an oak tree and causing an acorn to drop from its place on the tree.  Because God designed the acorn with a pointed end, similar to the front of an airplane, and the impact from its fall, the acorn starts to burrow itself into the soft ground bellow.  Providing that no animals decide to make a meal of it, the acorn will eventually become completely buried, and when spring comes, it may sprout and someday become a mighty oak tree that can withstand even the strong winds of West Texas and children climb in. We really don’t tend to think very much about acorns and seeds, and we frequently step on them when they happen to rest in our path.  Yet, God can even use something as simple as an acorn to illustrate important Biblical concepts that we can apply to our everyday lives.

Today in America, the concepts of “dreaming big” and “following your heart” are lionized and practically worshipped.   However, dreams are just like acorns or seeds   – dreams are just the hope of what will happen in the future, and while they may have a lot of potential, they are not the real deal.  When the acorn sprouts to become a tree, the acorn itself first must be buried alone in the cold, dark, and damp soil and then break open.  The acorn has to die to become a tree.  In the same way, our dreams must also die before they can sprout and bloom, which sounds counter intuitive, but is actually very practical.

This author knows from experience that dreams must die.  This summer, I wanted to volunteer for a week at the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky, but that was not what God had in mind.  Instead, I ended up helping construct a life-size model of a stegosaurus at a small fossil museum in Crosbyton, Texas and having a much more prominent and permeate place there than I ever would have had in Kentucky.  I ended up getting to do everything (well, besides visit the big museum in Kentucky, which I hope to do some day in the not too distant future) I had originally dreamed of doing in Kentucky, plus some things that had never even crossed my mind before.  My dream, just like the acorn, had to die before it could truly bloom.  As we head into this coming year, remember to let your dreams and plans for the future die.  Because God is our Creator, He plans out every minute of our lives and has a purpose for even the most trying times.  Remember that God is in control of your future, and enjoy the adventures He has for you in 2013.

The inspiration for Acorns & Dreams is based off of the ideas from the book Before You Meet Prince Charming, by Sarah Mally.