CHAPTER 12 - The Tree by the River

In this final chapter, “The Tree by the River,” the book closes with a powerful picture of what it means to live a truly blessed life. Drawing from Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17, the author compares a person who trusts God to a tree planted beside a river. The tree still experiences heat and drought, but its roots reach deeper than the circumstances around it.The message is clear: blessing does not mean a life without hardship; it means being deeply rooted in God through every season.The chapter then brings the book’s central theme full circle. God’s blessing was never meant to stop with one person. As promised to Abraham, “you will be a blessing to others.” In Christ, that blessing flows outward through generosity, wisdom, faithful work, businesses, families, churches, caregiving, justice, hospitality, prayer, and service.The author reminds listeners that a blessed life doesn't necessarily look like wealth, fame, or comfort. It may look like peace around a dinner table, a business providing fair employment, a church handling resources responsibly, a missionary being supported, or simply someone remaining faithful through suffering.The stories of ordinary people, and the author's reflections on Carlos Ortiz and the television ministry that reached twenty-nine stations, illustrate how something planted in one place can eventually provide shade for people far beyond its origin.The chapter ends with a commissioning: don't live merely to receive the blessing; become a channel through which God's grace reaches others. We are encouraged to plant things whose fruit we may never personally enjoy, trusting that someone in the future may benefit from what we faithfully begin today.