We built our home in a development that was originally an oak forest. We carved out just enough space to put the house and left all the beautiful trees surrounding us. I never planned to have a back yard because I wanted the wild beauty of the forest outside my window. A couple years later we noticed that some of the trees were dying at the top. Once that started, the tree was soon completely dead. The disease spread rapidly. According to the forester, our entire county had oak wilt and most of the oak trees would eventually die.
We quickly went from living in an oak forest to being surrounded by a jumble of dead trees. I moaned and groaned but there was nothing we could do except cut down trees and watch our tree-filled back yard turn into wide open spaces. Nothing would be the same—no wind whispering in the leaves, no stately green guardians surrounding the house, and certainly none of the privacy those trees had afforded us.
But this summer something interesting is happening. With all those oak trees gone, the sun now shines on the small trees that were living beneath them. The former oak forest is now a place filled with white pines growing rapidly since the oaks are out of the way.
Isn’t this the way in the Christian walk sometimes? Dying to self—to old habits, behaviors and desires is alarming, frightening, even. But if we trust, God will grow something new in us, something more beautiful. Once we clear out the overgrowth of selfishness, pride or whatever dead trees we have in our lives we make space for something new to grow—something fresher and cleaner than what we had before.
The saga of our trees has been a living metaphor for the Christian life. It’s not so scary to give things up—dead trees, dead thoughts, dead habits. God has a plan and He won’t leave our lives an empty field.
Wow, what an analogy. I needed that today-the last year has seen many changes and some foot stomping-why me!!!! Now I understand-I am growing a new forest-I needed to change some very bad habits and form new ones. An ongoing struggle-thank you for the analogy!!!
Posted by: Amy | May 22, 2009 at 09:01 AM