The Olive Tree

On one side of our camper is a lemon tree, we walk out the door and see it. On the other side there is an olive tree. Inside the camper most our windows hold a view of this olive tree. When you are standing at the kitchen sink you see the olive tree. When you are at the dinning room table you can see the olive tree. It’s really been on my heart lately that Noah sent out the dove and it came back with an olive branch 🕊. 

I’ve read the passage a few times lately in Gen. 7 & 8 and a few things really struck me. Noah and his family were on an ark, it was not a quick and easy type of thing. They had been on the same ark for over a year. A year stuck on a large boat filled with animals. A year stuck on a boat without electricity, plumbing or grocery delivery. They had not been off, out, or without the ark this entire time. Life smelled like they had been on a boat for weeks and weeks and weeks….. filled with animals. There was still water outside, water everywhere outside.

But Noah sent out a dove and finding no place to rest it came back to Noah. Noah again sent a dove out and this time it brought back an olive branch. Oh the joy this must have brought!

Before the promise of the rainbow, there was the hope from the olive branch. The hope that things were changing. No matter the season, no matter the ark you feel shut up in, no matter how bad life stinks…. open the window and send out the dove. There is always hope!

Romans 5:5 “And this HOPE will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

(The wreath pictured above is made from branches of our olive tree a reminder of where our Hope comes from).