The Almond Branch

 

Everything is shifting. It is the last full week of the term and in less than two weeks, half of the interns graduate and will be heading back to the U.S. to move forward with the next step in their lives. We’ve all been trying to push it out of our thoughts, but the impending change is still hanging in the air, weighing on us as we begin all of our “lasts.” Last weekend together, last time at the beach, last class with this group of ten, last house dinner together… They are all coming and soon after, everything will change.

What is even harder is that the change has already begun. This weekend I took a two-day trip to Granada with Allison, Brook, and Grant, some of my fellow interns. While we were there, Grant got news on his iPhone that his mom had a stroke – her fourth one in the last nine months. He left early the next day, a couple hours before us, to head back home to Mijas where he could more easily get into contact with his family. When we walked in the door a few hours after him that evening, we found out that his mom was in ICU and was probably not going to make it, so he was being Skyped into ICU.

My heart broke.

This is one of our interns… one of our friends, our family members… and things haven’t exactly been easy in his life. To hear about such a distressing, heart-wrenching thing sent our whole group into tears and prayers. The leaders of G42 stopped by our house periodically throughout the night to encourage and support Grant while everything was going on. It was a tough night, but Grant is a really strong man and demonstrated peace and hope in the midst of that horrible situation we never want to imagine ourselves in.

Right now, Grant is on his way to Madrid to catch a flight back to L.A. where he can meet up with his relatives and brothers and see his mom one more time before the machine is turned off and she goes home to the Lord.

Graduation is one week away. Our hearts are broken for Grant. And we’re so sad to see him go, only days before getting a chance to celebrate his graduation from the last six months of hard work here at G42.

The house feels extra empty tonight, and I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in a couple weeks when every leaves permanently.

However, I know that although the change and transition will be sad for all of us, it is an occasion of celebration and an event to rejoice in. The interns who are graduating – AnnieRose, Allison, Lynsey, Jenny and Christ Telfer, and Grant – have been poured into for six months here and have grown, changed, been challenged, and been filled up to the brim. They are bursting at the seams, ready to embrace their life-passion and the dream that God has put into their hearts. They are prepared, they are passion-filled, and they are ready – and they are about to go and do incredible things in this world! As sad as my heart is to see them go, I can’t help but also rejoice, knowing that they are fully equipped to do the work God has set out for them to do.

Andrew, the director here, taught us a story from Jeremiah 1 this week. It’s when God speaks to Jeremiah and calls him to be a prophet. After telling Jeremiah that, even in his youth, he is still qualified and capable of leading God’s people, simply because God has chosen him, God then asks Jeremiah what he sees. Jeremiah gives a simple answer – an almond branch, which God affirms is correct.

So what’s so important about an almond branch? Andrew has one in his garden and he told us something unique about it: the almond tree is the first tree to bloom in the winter. He walked out onto his terrace one grey January morning and saw the tree with blossoms budding on the branches.

Jeremiah was living in the midst of a winter. His country and his people had hardships whirling down all around them – economically, politically, spiritually, and socially. Yet when Jeremiah looked around him and described what he saw, he didn’t say he saw winter. In the midst of the coldest, darkest time, Jeremiah saw the one tiny thing that wasn’t winter: a fresh new bud on the almond tree – the symbol of hope, the promise of spring, the reminder of new life ahead.

In the midst of change, in the midst of goodbyes and departures, in the midst of our friends’ winters and our own winters, I hope we can always remember to look for the almond branch. There is always a spring ahead. And there will always be a sprig of hope in the middle of the winter.