The Almond Tree

''The word of the LORD came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied." Jeremiah 1:11

        Some of you are fond of making puns - too fond, your friends sometimes think, and they threaten to turn you out of the room if you make another. Did you know that there are puns in the Bible ? There are - several of them - and our text to-day is one.
       God was speaking to the young prophet Jeremiah and calling him to his life-work, and to encourage him in that work God said to the prophet, " What are you looking at just now ? " "A branch of an almond tree," answered Jeremiah. Now it so happens that in Hebrew the almond tree is sometimes called the " hastener " or the " awakener " because, first of all the trees, it rushes into bloom. In January and February, when other trees are still asleep, it bursts into blossom, and the Hebrews look upon it as we do on our snowdrop. They think of it as the harbinger, the herald of the spring, and they call it by this poetic name, the  ''hastener," the tree that hastens to meet the spring. So, "A branch of the hastener," said Jeremiah, and God replied, "Right, Jeremiah, a branch of the hastener! So shall I hasten to do what I have promised."
       The " hastener " is one of the most beautiful and most prized trees in Israel. We know almonds mostly as delicious white oblongs which we love to munch along with raisins, or as sweets coated with sugar; but the people of the Middle East know the almond from its very beginning, and they eat the fruit at a much earlier stage than we do.
       The almond tree is really a cousin of the peach and the apricot. Like the peach it bears its flowers before its leaves. These flowers are white at the tips but shade off to pale pink at the base of the petals, and an almond tree covered with blossoms is one of the glories of the land of Palestine. Immediately the flowers drop off the fruit begins to form and the leaves to appear; and by March the tree is green. The young fruit is enclosed in a downy green pod which is crisp like a cucumber and has a refreshing acid taste. During April and May it is sold in the streets, and the children, especially, love to buy it. After the fruit is ripe its green cover shrinks to a brown leathery envelope, the kernel hardens, and then you have the ripe almond, the almond that you see in the green- grocer's window. You pop it into boiling water, the brown covering slips off, and lo! the blanched almond we all delight in.
       The Jews make sugar almonds as we do, and they also beat the kernels with sugar into a paste not unlike our marzipan or almond icing. You remember how Jacob told his sons to take with them into Egypt as a present to their unrecognized brother Joseph "a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and  almonds." They did not grow almonds in Egypt, so the present would be greatly appreciated. Of course Jacob's almonds would be plain, not sugared almonds, as there was no sugar in his day.
       The almond is mentioned several times in the Bible. Aaron's miraculous rod that budded, blossomed, and yielded fruit all in one night was an almond branch. Perhaps it is in memory of this rod that the Jews still carry to their synagogues or churches, on festival days, branches of almond blossom. The flowers of the almond, too, were used as models for the ornaments of the seven-branched golden candlestick of the Tabernacle.
       Now, you can forget all I have told you about the almond, if you promise to remember one thing - and that is its Hebrew name. It is as the " hastener " I want you to remember it, for it is as the "hastener" that it brings a message to us.
       The almond hastens to respond to the sunshine and the call of spring. It meets them half-way. I want you to copy it. I want you, through life, to meet things and people half-way. I want you to be ready to respond. I want you to meet joy and gladness half-way. I want you to be keen and eager to greet all that is good or beautiful. I want you to be enthusiastic and not ashamed to show it.
       You know there are some people in this world whom we describe as "wooden." And a very good description it is! There is no hastening blossom on their trees.
       There is no answering smile on their faces when you smile to them. They might learn a lesson from the very dogs on the street. When one dog meets another it greets it by wagging its tail, and the second dog wags back a kindly answer. Don't be a "wooden" person. Copy the almond tree and give smile for smile, kindliness for kindliness, love for love.
       And when you are hastening to respond to human love, don't forget to respond to God's love. It has
come more than half-way to meet you. It has indeed been with you and around you from the day you came into the world. How are you going to meet it ? Are you going to answer it? Are you going to return God's love with love? Hastings