Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 3 – TRUST (WATCH HERE)
Isaiah 11:1 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”
“I thought it was dead.” After a winter freeze in Texas a few years ago, our lemon tree seemed to have bit the dust. All the branches died and there was no sign of life. Until there was. That spring little shoots came out of the stump and now the tree that is is bigger than the one that died off (Unfortunately we haven’t had a single blossom on it…so the illustrations stops there!).
Isaiah speaks of a stump that seemed dead, but wasn’t. The line of David seemed to be a dying breed. Those that were bloodline were some, but those that had the faith of David were fewer. Yet what God promises through Isaiah is that out of this seemingly dead stump, a Branch would come and establish itself with strong roots and bear fruit once again.
I don’t know what will happen with our lemon tree. It may have lost its ability to bear fruit (if there are anyone who might know what to do…let me know!), yet the branch from the stump of Jesse would guarantee fruit.
Not the place you would expect the Lord to show up. Yet, in this statement God speaks hope that would be found in an unlikely place. Not a towering tree. Not instant restoration. But through a small, tender, and easily overlooked shoot, God promises new life that begins quietly, almost invisibly, in the ruins of what once was.
The hymn Where Shepherds Lately Knelt captures the wonder of it:
“In that unlikely place I find Him… sweet newborn babe, how frail! … a still, small voice to cry one day for me.”
To think the one who would plead on my behalf would arrive in the world, not with force or spectacle, but as a baby, dependent and vulnerable, laid in a manger.
Trusting God often means trusting His way of working. And His way is rarely what we expect.
Trust, at its core, is placing your weight on something because you are convinced of its reliability. Yet God asks us to place our weight on what looks fragile: a shoot from a stump, a child in a feeding trough, a quiet promise spoken into a season of loss. Everything in us wants visible strength, quick answers, and clear signs of success. God offers something better, something slower, smaller, and deeper.
Trusting God’s unlikely ways means believing that He is at work even when we cannot yet see the fruit. It means trusting that what looks insignificant now may carry eternal weight. It means believing that God is faithful not only in victories, but in beginnings that seem barely alive.
If God can bring the Savior of the world through a stump and a manger, He can bring hope through whatever feels cut down in your life.
This Christmas, you are invited to trust not in what is impressive, but in what is promised. To lean not on what is visible, but on what is faithful. The shoot is growing. God is not finished. And new life is already on the way.
Reflection: Where in your life does something feel like a “stump” rather than a flourishing tree? What would it look like to trust that God can still bring life from that place?
Prayer: Lord, you bring life from what looks finished. Teach me to trust your work in small beginnings and hidden places. Help me believe that you are still growing something good, even when I cannot yet see it. Amen.