Women’s Devotional | The Root of You – Week #4

Devotion -

Women’s Devotional | The Root of You – Week #4

 

Paths of Migration

 

Genesis 1:20-23

20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

 

Jonah 1:17

17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.


Matthew 3:16

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

 

 

mi·grate

  1. (of an animal, typically a bird or fish) move from one region or habitat to another according to the seasons.

 

What’s Your Season?

We learn in grade school about different flocks of birds and schools of fish migrating during their lifespan. Fish migrate between their spawning, feeding, and nursery grounds, and birds migrate south due to the coldness of the northern winters and back again in the springtime to (according to the internet www.allaboutbirds.org) take advantage of burgeoning insect populations, budding plants and an abundance of nesting locations. We also tend to migrate during our different seasons of our lives.

Jonah literally ran from the Lord’s instruction. He had been instructed to go to Nineveh and preach against the wickedness there. Jonah instead ran away. No matter what you can’t run from God. He had a big fish swallow Jonah and he spent three days and three nights in the belly of this fish. Now, it doesn’t clarify in the story where the fish vomited him out but I believe he did right in front of Ninevah. The big fish migrated Jonah to where the Lord wanted him to be.

In the story of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist a dove came down and landed on him signifying the Spirit of God. When we are baptized we are leaving one season and entering another as clean and prepared to God’s work just like Jonah’s time in the fish gave him time to be prepared to do what the Lord had called of him.

Like the fish and birds we are migrating during the seasons of our lives. God will send us on the path we need to go to do his word. During our migration we will see the spawning of new ideas, the nourishment of our souls, and then finally the birth of God’s plan.

Isn’t it cool how everything in God’s plan even since the very beginning can line up with who he is today?

-Alison

Worksheet

  1. Are you on a path of migration?

     
    2. In what ways do you see a correlation between the stories of Jonah and Jesus’ baptism and your life?

 

Challenge: Research about birds and fish in the Bible. It will take you down an incredible path!


x