For about a year my backyard has had two dead trees in the far-left corner. One is very visible, and my husband wanted us to call someone to cut it down because if it fell on its own it might fall the wrong way and cause damage to our fence. The other one is hidden from view and less likely to damage anything should it fall.
While sitting in my backyard one evening, enjoying the beauty of God’s magnificent creation, my eyes came to rest on those barren trees. They were stripped of any green leaves, the life within them nowhere to be seen. They were dead, surrounded by the green, vibrant life of all that was thriving around them. Suddenly, the still small voice of the Spirit within me said, “The tree will come back to life.” I told my husband we were not to cut that tree down. It was going to thrive again. He gave me that look he always does when I say something that is totally beyond reason, but he has known me so long now he just goes with the flow. So we never called anyone to cut that tree down.
Well, sure enough, just last weekend, a storm rolled through, and we wake up the next day to the tree that I thought was supposed to once again thrive uprooted. But God, always in the details, made sure it toppled in a way that no damage was done to our fence. I was shocked when I saw it fallen over because I know what I heard. My husband went out to look at the tree and assess what would be needed to clear it away. About fifteen minutes later, he came back into the house.
“Honey,” he said, “you know that tree that you said would come back to life, it has.”
I looked at him and said, “No that is not right. The tree has been uprooted with no chance to live again. You see it.”
He responded, “Oh, I thought you were talking about the other tree.”
The other tree? I immediately got up and went and looked for myself and the other tree that was leass visible but just as dead had come back to life. Green shoots of life were sprouting from its branches. One tree had been uprooted by the storm, the other was sprinkled with newfound life.
And then the still small voice spoke to me:
“We have to be uprooted by storms and trials, pulled away from things of this world, absolutely separated from the flesh, in order to once again have life. One tree represents totally dying to self. The other tree represents rising to Christ from the ashes of our dead self.
Reader, you will once again be vibrant, be alive. Just surrender it all to Him, every bit of self, every bit of fleshy desire; let it be uprooted and embrace the vibrancy of Him flowing thru your veins, your mind, your body, your Spirit.”
