"Doesn't it bless your heart to think about how long in advance God sent someone to plant the sycamore tree so that one day Zacchaeus could have an encounter with Jesus?"
I posed this question to Ana as I rolled some sour oranges around in my hand. (Here in the Dominican, oranges are green and sour like lemons or limes.)
Just hours before this moment, in the early morning hours, we had been robbed several hundred meters of electrical wire, leaving us completely without power during some of the hottest days of the year here in the Caribbean. We had been standing in the scorching sun, praying for provision, while taking gatorades to the men working to re-route the wires we had left through a different, more populated area, hoping to avoid theft in the future.
As we were walking back up the dusty road towards our homes Ana said, "Megan, come look at this with me." I lifted my eyes to gaze upon an abandoned structure - which is not an uncommon siting here in the DR. But my curiosity was peaked with the possible reason why this roof-less, cracked structure would be of any interest to us. "This is ours to work, Megan." "What?" "The conference purchased this piece of land and this structure and they asked us to do something with it."
The blocks were chipping away in some places, there are some cracks in the walls and it is currently the living quarters for a neighbor's swine. The front of the structure was donned with a huge pile of empty alcohol bottles and much overgrown brush. However, amidst all of the visual chaos, there was an orange tree full of ripe fruit.
This is how we found ourselves with fresh oranges in our hands that would soon become a refreshing glass of homemade juice to help us to find a moment of refuge from the intense heat. A while ago, God gave someone the idea to plant an orange tree right there, then gifted us the same piece of land for ministry, in order to give us an orange tree that would bear the fruit for us to have a cold cup of juice on a hot day in the midst of a sticky, unpleasant circumstance.
The same as Zacchaeus.
Thank you, God, for providing for every single need in advance.
Even if God doesn't deliver us from the uncomfortable situation immediately, He always makes a way to sustain you in the waiting.
If you are in the waiting for the deliverance, for the healing, for the provision, for the restoration, for the answers to your questions or for the relief from the heat, look for the orange tree God has planted for you. Make some fresh juice. Don't forget the ice. It'll be a restful moment so that you can withstand the wait.
