God’s Name: Tender Shoot

Excerpted  from The Surprising Joy of Exploring God’s Heart

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry

ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:2

Here is another name of God for Easter.

Steps on Your Journey to Know God More Intimately:

• This name is one word in the Hebrew, yonake. This is the only time this word is used. It means a sucker, a twig of a felled tree or a tender plant.
• Other translations of this verse say tender green shoot, tender plant, delicate plant or a tender sapling. How do they add to your understanding of this name?
• Think about this name. Why do you think Jesus is referred to as a tender shoot?
• God protected this tender shoot for the task He had for Him. He can protect you for the tasks He has for you as well. May you truly know Yahweh in all His tenderness and love for you.
• Talk to the Lord about what He is showing you today.

A Prayer For You:

I praise You, Lord, because You grew up as a tender, delicate plant. Reveal to me more of what this means and how You want me to relate to You differently. Teach me more about Yourself this month as I focus on You and what You did for me.

Endorsement of God’s Design for Community and Reconcilable Differences

By Dr. Laura Mae Gardner, International Personnel Consultant and Trainer for Wycliffe and SIL International. Author of Healthy, Resilient, and Effective in Cross-Cultural Ministry.

These two books are an unusual duet, designed to be read together and in this sequence. Until we fully understand what it means to live in community and how to do that, we won’t grasp the desperate need to reconcile our differences and deal with our conflicts. This does not mean, of course, that we should move into a commune. It does mean we should have a menu of relationships in our lives, some for ministry, some for growth (mentors, models), some for stimulation, and some for fun. A few people should have the right to connect deeply with us, tell us hard truths about ourselves, and help us get our lives in order and on track. Some will be ‘back door people’, people we can rely on for anything at any time, those who we turn to for comfort, help, and guidance. Community tells us now to build deep and sound relationships and why. Gaylyn Williams has given us her usual skillful, Biblical, practical tools for living lives as God intended—in community.

But things will go off track for a variety of reasons and most of us will think it’s not worth the effort to try to restore the relationship. Worse yet, we don’t know how, even if we wanted to. Again, Gaylyn has written a guidebook, Reconcilable Differences, that takes us through this process from beginning of deterioration to restoration of relationship. We’d like to think it is ‘their fault’, whatever has divided us from friends and relatives. Maybe so, but the initiative for resolving the difference lies with us, and Gaylyn walks us through the process. We are without excuse. Dealing with broken relationships is possible, and the initiative is ours. And it can be done. Just read the book! Read them both. You’ll love them. I did.

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