Stiff-necked People

We got 10 inches of wet, heavy snow on Wednesday night.  It fell quickly, creating a nightmare commute for thousands of people heading home just as snow was falling fast and furious.  But it also created a beautiful, snow-frosted world.  The wet snow clung to trees and shrubs and powerlines and signs: it covered everything - so beautiful!  The weight of the snow took a toll, though.

My trees used to look a lot like these.

My bent and broken trees!

In front of my house, we have a hedge of Arbor Vitae trees.   Perhaps I should say we "had" a hedge of Arbor Vitae trees.  All that wet heavy snow clung to their evergreen leaves, and bent the poor dears over so far their "heads" were touching the snow!  Some couldn't take the weight and snapped.  I spent Thursday morning shaking snow off of the bent trunks, hoping they might recover eventually.

Driving around later, I noticed how all the plants of every sort were either bent or broken by the heavy snow.  Those that were stiffer snapped, but those with more supple trunks or branches merely bent.  All those bent-over trees and plants seemed to be in a posture of prayer.  And I got to thinking about people...

Throughout the Old Testament, God's people Israel are referred to as "stiff-necked people."  “'I have seen these people,' the LORD said to Moses, 'and they are a stiff-necked people.'" (Exodus 32:9)  They are rebellious and refuse to obey God or trust God.  They are stubborn in their sinfulness.  Does that remind you of anyone you know?  Yourself, perhaps?  I know I am more stiff-necked than I wish.  The less attentive I am to God, the more stiff-necked I seem to become!  And being stiff-necked is a problem.  Remember my poor trees...

When a weight of troubles descend, we will either bend or break under them, depending on our relationship with God.  The yielding and obedient - those who strive to love the Lord their God with all their heart and mind and soul - can bend.  In fact, they willingly bend in prayer and thanksgiving to God.  Because even in the most extreme and difficult of circumstances, we can always thank God that he loves us no matter what.

The stiff-necked, however, will break.  The stiff-necked turn away from God and try to handle things themselves, their own way, apart from God.  And sooner or later the load becomes too great to bear, and they snap.

Of course, at the end of time, we all must bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  All people - those who are Christ followers, and those who are not - will be faced with the weighty truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Will you be among the bent or among the broken on that day?

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 

   in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, 

   to the glory of God the Father.  -Philippians 2:10-11