There's always been a beautiful tree in my front yard. It was here when we bought the house. It sits right outside my office window. I was recently told that it’s a Bradford Pear. But I don’t know for sure what it is. Regardless, I often gaze at the tree when I think of what I need to type up or say for my job.
This tree has many looks depending on the time of the year.
My favorite time is when it blooms bright in the spring and is the most radiant tree with pink flowers. Other times it’s green and ready to bloom. And yet, on other occasions, it's brown and bare.
Well, this past week, my tree has been weighted down by ice. Its limbs have been heavy with unwelcome weight.
Then I woke up this past Friday morning to a split tree. The ice was too heavy a burden for my beautiful tree to carry. I'm saddened by this loss.
Do you ever feel like your life is like this tree? Sometimes you’re blooming bright and happy? Other times you’re looking for and waiting for better days. And then there are those times that you are so down and out that you feel worthless?
What about your burdens? Do you some days feel an unwelcome weight on you? Like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders?
I daresay we all have these times of struggle.
The ice weighed the tree down, and the tree just wasn’t strong enough to hold all that extra weight. Like the tree, we can also allow ourselves to be weighed down. But unlike the tree, we can choose a different path. The tree cannot. The tree has to be patient and wait for the thaw or the break.
This is how we are different from the tree. Unlike the tree, we can rely on One to help us when we have too heavy a burden. One Who loves us beyond my comprehension.
Ephesians 2:4: But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.
As I sit here in my recliner today, I can’t help but wonder if I am like the tree in God’s eyes.
He loves it when His children are blooming bright for all to see. God wants His children happy because He loves us. God is saddened when we are down.
Know this, you have beautiful blooms inside you just waiting on your “spring.” Don’t ever think you’re alone waiting to fall apart.
I hope we can recover a seed or piece of the tree to bloom and grow once again. Who knows, it may come back better. If it doesn’t, my tree gazing days will be no more.
If you’re still breathing, you have an opportunity to bloom and grow. You can come back better than ever. But you must rely on God!
If you are not a Christian, you have time and opportunity to become one! You have time and opportunity if you’re reading this. Don’t wait until your weight is too heavy and you split into, like, the tree.
Let us work together to build up the Lord’s Kingdom!
1. Hear the Gospel. (Romans 10:17, John 8:32)
2. Believe the Gospel (Hebrews 11:6, John 20:31)
3. Repent of past sins (Luke 13:3, Acts 17:30)
4. Confess faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:10, Matthew 10:32)
5. Be Baptized (Galatians 3:27, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38)
6. Be faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10)
In Christian Love,
Leah Brewer
Photo credit: Carissa Brewer
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