Apple From the Top of the Tree

Top of the Tree

I am going to liken this Apple to getting the best apples from the top of the tree.  The way up is difficult and painful, but the apples from up there are oh so sweet! 

God used pain to teach me a lovely lesson regarding my spiritual relationship to my husband.  Ralph was in the Air Force Reserves; and the children were six, four, and one.  He had to go to Germany for a two-week Temporary Duty Assignment in January of 1975.  We lived in Massachusetts where the winter was cold.  We augmented our oil furnace heat with a wood stove in the basement.  In addition to loneliness, there was near poverty and hard work.  We had not had much notice of his leaving, and he hadn’t gotten in as much wood as he had planned.  Normally, we gathered in only a little of the small wood ahead near the house because of carpenter ants.

Ralph had to take some of our cash with him, thus leaving us at home short, but we could manage.  From the time he left the weather grew colder.  We were almost out of oil, so we had to cut wood.  We gathered wood with all our strength; then, when home with it, I had to saw it to stove lengths with a bow saw by hand. 

Ralph Jr. was a little version of a man.  He carried and stacked and encouraged me.  For his six years old, he was amazing!

However, he couldn’t use the saw for me.  I cut wood till I couldn’t raise the saw; my arms and back ached; my arm trembled as I cut some more.  I rested and cut some more.  I felt so insufficient for this task before me.  I remember crying for the pain and the frustration that I had to do what I could barely do.  I was not strong enough; but I kept on, knowing I had to do this to keep my children warm. 

At some point as I was sawing, the Scripture came to me “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.”( Ephesians 5:23)  In my desperation to provide heat for my children, I understood ‘Ralph as the savior of my body by his strength and provision.’  He could have breezed through these sticks with laughter in an evening; but I was barely able to keep up with the burning stove. 

Christ Jesus gave up Himself with joy to save His church.  Christ did for the church what the church cannot do for itself.  My precious husband was capable and willing to give up himself for us – for me.  He routinely did for me what I could not do for myself. I needed him.  I was not complete without my ‘savior’ husband.  In my body – in pain – I cried and rejoiced that God would teach me this lesson.  I understood my position, as the church, should magnify the head and bring honor to him.

This was a precious sweet apple from high up the tree.   I am thankful God was so good to me to gift me with it in the way that He did.