Scars and Bends and Burnings

If you’ve been to the Colorado mountains, you’ve seen what my husband and I fell in love with during our 30 years of living there.  And I expect you, like Ron and I,  were absolutely amazed at the beauty our God put into this world. 

The mountains are majestic, the rivers and lakes are beautiful, but the trees tell me a story - and that’s what I’d like to talk about. 

As I looked at the trees surrounding our house, sometimes I would imagine them standing on the hillside where they were born years before I came to be there, I imagined them whispering to me the story of their lives.

There’s a tree on the west side of the lot that is lying completely on its side, but the branches have reached upwards to become three large trees growing out of the one set of roots.  That tree couldn’t stand up straight, so he became the means for others to stand.  There’s quite a story in that for us, isn’t there? 

One pine near the house is about 70 feet tall. He’s missing all his branches on one side about half way up and he has a funny bend in his trunk.  From that you can picture the years he spent trying to get around a tree leaning against him.  He is also blackened on one side where a wild forest fire tried to snuff out his life.  He’s certainly not the straight beautiful pine you see in pictures or Christmas trees.  He’s not perfect, but still he grew and for all the scars and bends and burnings, I see him as more beautiful than the straight, full trees surrounding him. 

Those twists and turns give him character.  The black burn place is a beautiful contrast to his lighter brown bark and I think he’s beautiful. 

I wonder if, when he was but a sapling – a skinny piece of wood and needles, the heavy snows of winter came and covered him so completely that he seemed to be just a bump in that white landscape. Did he wonder if he would be crushed by that blanket of snow? Or when the elk herd marched through the forest, would he be trampled underfoot?  Or when the hot dry summer came and all the green grass was parched and dead, would a hungry deer eat his branches?  

I believe all of these things happened to my brave tree, and I think about the story of his growing – he did grow.  Winds, winters, fires and drought assailed him.  Still he grew.  His roots searched deeper and deeper for something to hold him fast.  They reached for water and nourishment. 

And since God created Him, (if he could think) he would know that God found a way to hold him fast.  And my friend, God will hold us fast as well.

Jeremiah tells us
But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.”

It’s the same way for us in this world.  We are planted here.  We sprout and grow and when we’re in the dry times of our lives, we must send our roots deep enough to reach the water of God’s love.  We need God to hold on to and grow and stand firm.  

Paul prayed in Ephesians 3 (TLB)

. . . I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources
that He will empower you with inner strength
through his Spirit.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts
as you trust in him. 

Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 
And may you have the power to understand,
as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high,
and how deep his love is.  
May you experience the love of Christ,
though it is too great to understand fully.

Friends, your battles may also have been, or may still be, against pain, sickness, loneliness or emptiness. And, like the tree, there have probably been fires in your lives - hard times that came suddenly, and sometimes all you could do was stand.

God’s love gives us power and strength to stand as the fires burn, and to become beautiful in the eyes of the One who made us.  Your scars and bends and burnings make you into a tool for God to use to fulfill his purposes.   

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good 
to them that love God,
them who are the called according to his purpose. (the purpose He has set out for you.)  

I believe that trees, or yes people, with scars and burns and bendings are more interesting and more beautiful than just perfect Christmas trees.  I wonder if you do too.

Love, Diane