“every green tree”

1 Kings 14:23

Do you ever write down a great quote, and then find you have no idea where you got it from?  Well that has happened to me.  And not for the first time. 

It might be one of the Brian Jacques books I read this summer.  Matter of fact, I think it must have been, because I don’t know where else I’d get a quote like this…  ‘Cause here’s what I wrote down:

“To disguise yourself as a tree, ‘just stand there and think the same thoughts as the tree, and presto!'” 

Sounds like it has to have been spoken by a character in a book, doesn’t it?   So charming, but also very educational.  I mean, not so much about how to become a tree ~ I can’t see myself using that bit of advice.  But as far as transforming oneself.  I read that line, in a book about woodland creatures of all things, and I thought about Romans chapter 12.  Specifically verse 2:  “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

It’s about becoming something new.  It’s about transforming yourself to be more and more like Him.  Think the thoughts as would be thought by who you want to me, not by who you are.  Or, like they used to say, “Dress for the job you want; not for the job you have.” 

“The renewing of your mind,” Paul said in Romans.  Which is exactly what God’s Word does for us.  Takes us from who we are, to who we can be in Him.

Which is so much better than being like a tree.

~ “do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

that you may prove what is that good

and acceptable and perfect will of God.” ~

Romans 12:2

~