Story - The Almonds
Story - The Story of the Almonds
I woke up shivering the morning of Thanksgiving Day 1969. I'd pulled a canvas tarp over me while laying on a hay bail in a barn just off the road I was hitchhiking on, north of Sacramento going north to Oregon. Freeway 5 was closed for repairs, so I found myself on some country road in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't sleep with all those roosters crowing in my ear so I quietly sneaked back to the road with my friend Tom. We saw the sun come up to another clear crisp chilly California sunny day. The road was completely deserted of cars for a long time until a black man in a white pickup finally came by and graciously pulled over to pick us up. He headed north to the freeway and let us off at the first off ramp, again in the middle of nowhere.
We stood there on the side of the freeway for a long time watching the sun slowly rise in the sky and feeling our tongues slowly swell with thirst and hunger. Why was I doing this?
It must've been noon with the sun high and the air hot and dry. I thought, "I must be out of God's will. Nobody has come down this road to pick us up." I said, "Why don't we test God to see what His will is. You stand on one side of the road, and I'll stand on the other. The one who gets the first ride, that's the way we're supposed to go."
But then my heart smote me. I hadn't come this far to go back. I knew it was for God that I'd come this far. How could I be so un-resolute? I wasn't anywhere near dead yet. I sure was in pain though, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain.
Then I said, "Why don't we go over to that almond grove and see if we can get something to eat?" Tom agreed. So, we jumped the fences and started going from tree to tree. Not one almond! I saw another grove on the other side of the drainage ditch and said, "Let's try over there." I found one hanging on a tree and another on the ground, but nothing else. So, we gave up.
We jumped the fences back to the road and stood there quiet, thinking, praying. No traffic. I thought about all the early settlers, our forefathers who had walked into this land a hundred years ago. I thought about the early saints and Israelites who'd persevered though their wildernesses. Finally, it came to me that I shouldn't just be dependent on some driver who might pass by. If God wants me to go to Oregon, I could walk just like all those who've paved this road before me. So, I said to Tom, "Let's walk to a better place to hitchhike." I could see a long way. I didn't see a better place to hitchhike. But any place was better than here.
So, we started walking through what felt like the Sahara desert. The sun baking down on our skin, the dry wind, the thirst, and the breeze of the cars going by. I didn't even turn to the traffic anymore, I just put out my left arm, thumb up.
I was looking down at the gravel and sand I was walking on just putting one foot in front of the other. Then I saw a pebble that looked strangely different than the others and stopped to look at it. Tom caught up and said, "What are you looking at?" I bent down and picked up an almond just lying there along the side of the road.
We joked and rejoiced and said grace and very carefully divided it up savoring every morsel. Then we started stepping down the road again. Again and again, we stopped and stooped to pick up more almonds until we started putting them in our pockets.
Then a white station wagon pulled over in front of us and we ran up to it. The couple inside offered us a ride and said to get in the back seat. When we got in, we saw the floor covered with almonds! They were almond growers who had just harvested. They said, "Help yourself."
They gave us a ride to a perfect place to hitchhike. We'd hardly got out of the car before someone else stopped and gave us a ride all the way to the front door of the commune we were going to in central Oregon, 10 miles off the freeway. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with them and slept under warm blankets that night.
Just before I woke up the next morning, I heard a voice asking me, "Where were the almonds?" I said, "Lord, not on the trees, but on the road." Then was opened to me even further the scripture in Matthew 6:31-33, "... Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?'. For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ..."
+++
It is an amazing truth in our lives that we can become focused on ourselves and our own will in an instant, and forget God, His will, and His promises!
How many of us have looked at the immediate circumstances of our lives and were filled with worry and anxiety? How many times have we attempted to take matters into our own hands, only to fail miserably at what we were attempting to do. As a wonderful sister in Christ tells me often, “Just let go and let God!” He is faithful to His promises, and He will never fail us.
It is our faith in Christ which has connected us to Him and even this is His doing! God wanted us and He save, and now we belong to Him. If He has already done everything to bring us to this point in our lives: Creation, all of history, the Cross of Christ, the work of the Gospel to the point it touched our lives, and then His continued blessings to this very day, will He not be faithful tomorrow? Oh, we of little faith!
May we truly learn what it means to “Let go and let God” and then stand and marvel at His faithfulness to us!
Blessings in Christ
Pastor Russ
I woke up shivering the morning of Thanksgiving Day 1969. I'd pulled a canvas tarp over me while laying on a hay bail in a barn just off the road I was hitchhiking on, north of Sacramento going north to Oregon. Freeway 5 was closed for repairs, so I found myself on some country road in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't sleep with all those roosters crowing in my ear so I quietly sneaked back to the road with my friend Tom. We saw the sun come up to another clear crisp chilly California sunny day. The road was completely deserted of cars for a long time until a black man in a white pickup finally came by and graciously pulled over to pick us up. He headed north to the freeway and let us off at the first off ramp, again in the middle of nowhere.
We stood there on the side of the freeway for a long time watching the sun slowly rise in the sky and feeling our tongues slowly swell with thirst and hunger. Why was I doing this?
It must've been noon with the sun high and the air hot and dry. I thought, "I must be out of God's will. Nobody has come down this road to pick us up." I said, "Why don't we test God to see what His will is. You stand on one side of the road, and I'll stand on the other. The one who gets the first ride, that's the way we're supposed to go."
But then my heart smote me. I hadn't come this far to go back. I knew it was for God that I'd come this far. How could I be so un-resolute? I wasn't anywhere near dead yet. I sure was in pain though, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain.
Then I said, "Why don't we go over to that almond grove and see if we can get something to eat?" Tom agreed. So, we jumped the fences and started going from tree to tree. Not one almond! I saw another grove on the other side of the drainage ditch and said, "Let's try over there." I found one hanging on a tree and another on the ground, but nothing else. So, we gave up.
We jumped the fences back to the road and stood there quiet, thinking, praying. No traffic. I thought about all the early settlers, our forefathers who had walked into this land a hundred years ago. I thought about the early saints and Israelites who'd persevered though their wildernesses. Finally, it came to me that I shouldn't just be dependent on some driver who might pass by. If God wants me to go to Oregon, I could walk just like all those who've paved this road before me. So, I said to Tom, "Let's walk to a better place to hitchhike." I could see a long way. I didn't see a better place to hitchhike. But any place was better than here.
So, we started walking through what felt like the Sahara desert. The sun baking down on our skin, the dry wind, the thirst, and the breeze of the cars going by. I didn't even turn to the traffic anymore, I just put out my left arm, thumb up.
I was looking down at the gravel and sand I was walking on just putting one foot in front of the other. Then I saw a pebble that looked strangely different than the others and stopped to look at it. Tom caught up and said, "What are you looking at?" I bent down and picked up an almond just lying there along the side of the road.
We joked and rejoiced and said grace and very carefully divided it up savoring every morsel. Then we started stepping down the road again. Again and again, we stopped and stooped to pick up more almonds until we started putting them in our pockets.
Then a white station wagon pulled over in front of us and we ran up to it. The couple inside offered us a ride and said to get in the back seat. When we got in, we saw the floor covered with almonds! They were almond growers who had just harvested. They said, "Help yourself."
They gave us a ride to a perfect place to hitchhike. We'd hardly got out of the car before someone else stopped and gave us a ride all the way to the front door of the commune we were going to in central Oregon, 10 miles off the freeway. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with them and slept under warm blankets that night.
Just before I woke up the next morning, I heard a voice asking me, "Where were the almonds?" I said, "Lord, not on the trees, but on the road." Then was opened to me even further the scripture in Matthew 6:31-33, "... Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?'. For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ..."
+++
It is an amazing truth in our lives that we can become focused on ourselves and our own will in an instant, and forget God, His will, and His promises!
How many of us have looked at the immediate circumstances of our lives and were filled with worry and anxiety? How many times have we attempted to take matters into our own hands, only to fail miserably at what we were attempting to do. As a wonderful sister in Christ tells me often, “Just let go and let God!” He is faithful to His promises, and He will never fail us.
It is our faith in Christ which has connected us to Him and even this is His doing! God wanted us and He save, and now we belong to Him. If He has already done everything to bring us to this point in our lives: Creation, all of history, the Cross of Christ, the work of the Gospel to the point it touched our lives, and then His continued blessings to this very day, will He not be faithful tomorrow? Oh, we of little faith!
May we truly learn what it means to “Let go and let God” and then stand and marvel at His faithfulness to us!
Blessings in Christ
Pastor Russ
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