When you pull onto our street and drive towards our house, there is a tree you can’t miss. I'm not a nature girl by any stretch, so believe me when I say you really can't miss it. It is in our front yard, kind of on the left corner of the house. It is old and tall, and reaches up to our roof and a little beyond.
For much of the spring, this tree looks completely dead.
It’s a little depressing, actually. While our grass is becoming greener, while our (albeit overgrown) rosebush is starting to bloom, when the woods behind our house are coming back to life- green after a gray winter...while all that is happening, this tree stands barren, looking exactly like it did in the dead of winter. You can’t miss it, and it isn’t because of its beauty.
I love this tree- it is my very favorite.
I love this tree because sometimes I feel like this tree.
I have felt barren when everyone and everything around me was blooming. After a long, dark season, when everyone else around me was moving and growing, I sat silently, unable to catch my breath and catch up. It looked like everyone around me was getting their prayers answered and their dreams were coming true, while my life looked like nothing was changing.
I love this tree because I've had situations in my life look like this tree.
So much life all around, but somehow this circumstance or relationship or dream still looks exactly the same as it did in the previous cold, gray season.
But then…
Just when I think this tree has lived its life, that I’ve held on long enough and this sucker has to come down, it comes to life and is so full and so beautiful that you can’t miss it. You couldn’t miss it before, true, but this time, you can’t miss it for all the right reasons- for its beauty, not its barrenness.
See, all the time, even when it looks stark, this tree isn’t dead…it just needs some more time and some more light. Even when it doesn’t look like it, there is movement and life. Things are shifting; things are happening under the surface. Roots are growing down deep and nutrients are moving up so that, in just the right time, the tree will bloom.
That thing in your life that looks dead- your friendship, your job, your marriage, your dream- it isn’t dead, either. It just needs some more time and some more Light. And the Light we have is better than the sunshine that shines on the trees- we have the light of the whole world (John 8:12). Whatever it is you’ve been praying for, don’t stop now. It may look like nothing is happening, but keep on asking (Matthew 7:7). Even when you can't see what He's doing, even when it appears He isn't, God is moving. Things are shifting and aligning in ways you can't see yet. Things are happening inside of you as you seek Him- your roots are growing deeper and stronger as you're being rooted and built up in Him (Colossians 2:7).
Every year, when the tree finally blooms, I'm so glad I didn't chop this thing down when it looked hopeless. I bet, when it happens for you- the reconciliation, the healing, the miracle, the joy in the morning- you're going to be so very glad you didn't call it dead when it was just asleep.
In Matthew 9, Jesus does a miracle, raising a girl from the dead. There's a big crowd and a lot of noise, and Jesus tells them, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." And y'all- the people laughed at Him because she was so clearly gone. The crowd is put outside, and Jesus takes her by the hand, and she got up.
There's nothing He can't heal and restore. If He can work a miracle with a literally dead human, surely He can do something amazing with one who is actively breathing. And if you're reading this, that's you (the actively breathing one, I hope).
Don't give up hope, friend. My tree looks dead for most of the spring to basically everyone who walks or drives by my house, but I know the truth. It's just sleeping.
No comments:
Post a Comment