Two trees sit in our home. They are remnants from a lightning storm on the ridge in the National Forest behind where we live…
They have a story to tell…a word of truth, an assurance that rests in a God of All Hope – a nod to our Good! Good! Father!
Their story declares:
When all seems Over and Done…
Burnt and Broken…
Scorched and Scarred…
The LORD is not finished.
Our Abba is still at work.
Our Elohim is still creating.
Adonai is still crafting.
Jehovah is still writing a story…
and, Yahweh is still in the Resurrection
& Restoration business….
It’s exactly what Jesus was trying to tell the women at Lazarus’ tomb, when He brazenly declared:
“I AM
the
Resurrection & the Life…
ALL who are in me will not die….”
###
High above our home in the national forest grew two trees..
Regal pines, full of life, with branches abounding and leaves flourishing…
Daily they raised their arms in praise to the One who created them, shouting with GREAT JOY!
Their sweet smelling aroma rose to the heavens, like prayers, filling the nostrils of their Creator God.
But, there on the mountain, they were susceptible to the storms that squalled.
Winds that blew with gale force.
Lightning that struck like thrusting swords.
Rain that pounded mercilessly.
And, as each element battered the trees,
They discovered their limbs broken…
Their leaves burnt to ash…
Their trunks scorched and scarred…
Their lives were spent.
In spite of the fact that they no longer seemed able to fulfill their given life-purpose…to GLORIFY their GOD, still they stood as strong and proud as they possibly could…
…and, EVEN IF, they could no longer lift their arms in praise, they were still a testimony of their Creator!
Sometimes feeling overlooked and abandoned, they waited and waited; and, wondered…
“What can the Father do with withered, blackened, burnt up stumps? We are but a shell of ourselves – Is there still purpose for us on this earth?”
And, they remained steadfast, simply waiting and resting….
Until, one day, the keen eye of an “artist-of-sorts” saw those two broken, bruised, blackened mess of scorched wood, not as worthless, or useless. Not as purposeless or without value.
Instead, he saw ART! He saw BEAUTY!
So, cutting, dragging, washing, spraying, the artist-of-sorts re-instated them to a new calling….a HIGHER CALLING…
They would stand once again,
Pure
&
Proud…
Pointing to their Creator, Abba (the Father of all Living Things) once more:
The One,
True God –
Who reverses destinies,
Redeems the broken,
Restores beauty from ashes.
The story of these two trees –
The message they shout –
Is a parable that points to the heart of a Father,
Who takes failures and flaws
And out of the fire,
Brings forth a Phoenix
with further future grandeur…
They stand to remind us
Our Abba is not done with us on this earth until He Heavenward carries us…
And, then, oh what awaits!!!!
We still aren’t used up.
Not for eternity…
Not ever…
For we were created ALL FOR HIS GLORY ——
For! ever! more!
