Happy spring!
Springtime reminds me of something God/Holy Spirit told me years ago. I’ll start with a little background; one summer I was out for a walk in my neighborhood. Across the street was a double cul-de-sac which had not been developed yet, only the road and a bit of landscaping had been done thus far. To my dismay, as I rounded the corner, I saw that one of the two young trees in half of the figure eight created by the road had apparently been hit by a car and was laying on the ground. I love plants, so this was a very sad sight to me. The tree had reached about 20 feet tall at that point, but was still fairly slender, and I mistakenly thought that maybe I could lift it back up. I couldn’t even budge it at all! The root ball was completely out of the ground and I couldn’t move any part of the trunk even an inch. I was very sad, and in the next few days on my walks, I watched the leaves start to wither in the late summer heat as the tree lay there, parched and burning on the asphalt. More than once as I passed by it, I asked God to please pick the tree up.
To my astonishment and delight, after about two weeks, I rounded that corner only to find the tree upright again!!! There was no indication of human intervention, and the ground and gravel around its base was as undisturbed as if the accident had never happened. In my mind, I could vividly see God’s hand reaching down and gently lifting the tree and smoothing out the ground after placing the roots carefully back in place. As evidence of the accident, the leaves were still withered and one of the main branches was broken and dangling, held only by strips of bark and splinters of the heart of the branch. As a gardener, I knew there was no chance for that branch to make it, so I twisted and pulled on it to break it free from the main trunk and lay it on the ground next to the tree.
It soon turned to fall, then winter, and finally spring again, and I had forgotten all about what had happened until I was out for a walk again and came upon the tree. I remembered what had happened and was both surprised and thrilled to see the leaves unfolding from their buds. As I expressed my surprise to myself, the Holy Spirit/God said, “I don’t pick things up to let them die.”
That statement has stuck with me all these years, and every time I pass that tree on my walks, I am amazed by God. No one will ever convince me that it was anything less than the hand of God that lifted that tree and took such care to erase almost all traces of the accident. A large, sturdy branch grew in place of the broken off branch, but if you look closely, you can see the scar on the trunk where the first branch had once grown.
I feel such deep application of this truth to my own life, and maybe you will too. Many of us have deep scars and have fallen and felt like we were going to wither and die. When God sent Jesus to reach out and lift us up from our despair and apparent death, His intention when we believe in Him is that we flourish and grow. He even uses our scars to bring new life, and to be a testimony to others who feel like they are withering under the heat of life, or from the damage they have received in this fallen world. I believe that the Word of God, the Bible, supports the sentence He spoke to me back then:
John 10:10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
II Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Romans 6:4
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
John 10:28
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 15:16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Psalm 113:6-8
Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes, with the princes of His people.
Be encouraged by the Word; He has new life for you, and for those you share your journey with!
(The tree, spring 2024)
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