There has been a lot of talk about the nuts in our church, lately.

On any given Sunday, you will find them sitting side-by-side or piled up in a small group. They sit there with their little beret-style caps on – convicting you – and beckoning you to come and reach out for them. Somewhere, deep inside, you find you are drawn to take hold of them – to squeeze them in your grasp but for a fleeting moment – only then to release and finally let them go.

No… I am not talking about my fellow church family members. I am talking about the bowl of acorns that have been gracing our communion table at the front of the altar. It’s a long story, but the acorn topic has come up on several occasions during our morning sermons the last few weeks, and has proven itself to be a most valuable teaching tool in more ways than one.

It all started with a sermon given by a pastor friend of mine, who is on staff at my Canadian home church. Away at a retreat, she had been requested to bring an item that represented her. Initially, she chose a scarf that sported a very significant scripture, which was pertinent to the specific directives the Lord has been giving her for a community-wide ministry. However, on a walk around the grounds she stooped to pick up an acorn. And the rest they say… is history.

Now, but not surprisingly, a few of these nuts are purposefully being shared and spread around our town – not to plant trees, but to plant seeds of conviction in thought, word, and deed. I am not even sure that our team of pastors have understood the full impact that message of a tiny little nut, or how it changed an “I can’t” to an “I can” for a whole lot of people!

We were each to take as many acorns as we felt we required. We were then told to hold them in our hand as a representation of those unhealthy seeds that should be prayerfully and purposely transplanted with the Lord, in order that healthy growth may eventually result.

A few weeks ago, during a Sunday morning worship service, the nuts’ power to hit a point home had materialized once again. Only this time, it happened in my jacket pocket.

While smoothing out the fabric, I had unconsciously discovered the acorn that I had slipped into my pocket on the way through the foyer earlier that morning. Without thinking about it, I was in the process of wrapping my fingers around it tight while our pastor was clarifying his analogy and reiterating the powerful point of the nut aloud… meanwhile, God, Himself, was whispering audibly and clearly in my ear.

The vision was as clear as reality itself…and I was watching it unfold before my eyes – I was seeing my own hand extending up and out in front of me, and then I heard Him speak… “You are all holding up your arms and hands in order to be giving your acorns to me, but look at your hand. Your fingers are closed. You have to open your hand flat in order for Me to pluck it out… ”

Isn’t there an awful lot of truth in that tiny oversight? In my own naivety, I just simply thought it was to keep it from dropping to the floor, but it was oh so much more….

My thoughts flashed back to what that nut would have represented for me in recent past years. That was the very moment when I heard Him speak ever so clearly – my own battle in the past was one of deep wounding and hurt, but the freedom that eventually came was through a complete and total forgiveness – the unclenching of what I had been holding captive in the palm of my very own hand.

Truthfully, I could look you square in the eye and tell you that I had forgiven them, because I honestly believed that I had. Yet, every once in a while, circumstances would appear and my inner core would realize the outer shell hadn’t quite split open enough to let the tender shoots of forgiveness form the firm roothold within the sustaining elements that Christ was offering me. I was discovering that some of the seed had been landing on top of unhealthy soil, and I needed to find the healthier conditions.

Oh, I was feeding it the healthy plant-food as much as I could in my own natural ability, but without allowing the proper Gardener to be in charge of overseeing the growing conditions, the seed capsule wouldn’t be broken down enough to let the real fruit of my faith take root.

A nut is a seed that is purposed to be planted in a location where a tough exterior shell would decompose and a soft inner core would be released over time in order to reproduce its’ own healthy fruit. An acorn usually takes 6 to 24 months to fully mature; and we in turn, can take as long as a lifetime. Even in the midst of the dark miry clay, “the little acorn that could” is potentially able to grow into a “mighty oak”, if nurtured in the right way.

It is also interesting to note that due to the weight, the seeds do not fall too far from the trees at their maturity. I would hope that we, too, see the importance of not falling too far away from the One who gives and breathes life into us during our own journey of maturity and development.

Contrastingly, a stored acorn may become rancid or moldy due to its’ unhealthy, high, fat content – just as too many unhealthy additives and conditions in our own environment, can possibly generate some bitter, rancid flavours, perspectives and behaviours. They wind up encased in our own little grasp, and end up destroying the healthy fruit.

This message came through as a simple, uncomplicated, illustration – but it contains a very profound message.

We need to know when to let go of the grip we have on our situations and circumstances. It is a labour-intensive process, and requires some serious self-introspection, examination and purging to maintain the quality control of your fruit content; but, in the end, it will all be worth it.

Yes, indeed… it is the power of God’s message through just another nut…