A couple of years ago, God showed
me something concerning the branches of trees that I found very
interesting, and that is that the branches of almost all trees fork
where it forms a new branch, so that the fork looks like a Y. Since
I realized this, I see these branches everywhere. Most of the time,
even when I see dead branches on the ground, I still see the Y
shape. Nature is filled with this Y shape! I read a book titled
Laat U Naam Geheilig Word by Este Geldenhuys about the
Names of God and the different meanings of His Names, which I found
very informative for our study. I will highlight just a couple of
things that I learned from her book.
Interestingly enough, the most holy
Name for God is YHWH, and as you can see, it starts with a Y. The
Name is so holy that the Jews don't even want to pronounce it out
of the deepest respect for Him. In the Hebrew language, they only
have consonants and no vowels. And with this Name of God, the Jews
see it almost as bad as blasphemy to pronounce this Name of God.
With translations, Christians, however, put in the vowels, so
through the years we have come to know the Name to be pronounced by
fellow believers as Yahweh or Jehovah. You might have heard these
Names spoken of. Yahweh or YHWH is the Name of God that is used the
most of all the Hebrew Names of God. It is used about 7,000 times
in the Old Testament.
YHWH means "the great I AM, the
self-existing One." That means He is the One Who now is and always
will be. He doesn't change, and therefore He is trustworthy and His
promises can be claimed.
YHWH is also the covenant Name of
God. YHWH made a covenant with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
YHWH also made a covenant with the Jews at Mount Sinai that He will
be with them to conquer the Promised Land, as well as with King
David that his throne will stand forever. All His covenants stood
the test of time. Our God can be trusted.
YHWH is also the One Who gives
breath to us, not only in the flesh, but also in the spirit.
Without Him, we cannot breathe and we will cease to exist.
Also, interestingly, the Name YHWH
consists of four consonants in the Hebrew language, namely, Yod,
Hey, Vav, and Hey. If you take "Yod, Hey," it forms Yah, and Yah
means the judgment of God, or rather the character of God Who is
always righteous. And "Vav, Hey" refers to the grace of God. So,
when the two are combined it gives a beautiful picture of a God Who
is righteous and should judge His people, but Who instead by His
grace punished His Son on our behalf so that we can be righteous in
His sight. A God worthy of all the praise we can give Him! And
therefore, we have the word Yah in Hallelujah too!!
Praising God for all His might.
So for me, it is extraordinary that
we are all surrounded on a daily basis by trees that have the Y
everywhere in their branches. I believe God designed it that way to
remind us of Him on a daily basis. It is a reminder for us that He
is the great I AM, the One Who is always there for us. He is
infallible, reachable, always the same in His character,
trustworthy, the One who gives breath to our lungs. He is the
covenant-keeping God Who looks out for us, always and in all
things.
(Excerpt from The Tree
of Life by Ilze Henderson)