Tree-riffic

“I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop" (John 12:24).

Jen here. An orange tree has caught my attention. Not the kind of tree that grows oranges; the kind of tree that turns orange in the fall. When I lock my front door in the morning and head down the steps to work, I can't help but see this single, astonishingly orange tree. I'll be honest - I've lived in my apartment for almost ten years and I don't ever remember noticing it before. It's a completely unassuming, plain little tree that has totally transformed, through the death of its leaves, into something beautiful.



I could tell you a lot of stories about me or the people I love who have lost something this year. One of the things you realize when you get older is that life just kind of keeps going. You can sit still, or you can move with it. You can fight it and spend all your time angry and afraid, or you can get going and roll with it. But what I really want to do is tell you to look for the beauty in your life, even in the places where God takes something away.

The Bible says we Christians will be pruned. It's what a gardener does to a tree in order to make it more beautiful. Trees that have been pruned continue to grow. You've seen it yourself. Your dad gets out those long, scary clipper things and chops up the front hedge, and a few weeks later, it's back. Trees don't let pruning stop them.

So this little orange tree got me thinking. Part of that tree's nature is for the leaves to die in the fall and come back in the spring. Part of the tree's job is to let go of its leaves and let them fall, and trust it will be made new again when the time is right.

This month's ec is about spiritual markers. I think that little tree has become a marker for me, a reminder that God uses everything for His glory. He didn't have to make those dying leaves beautiful, but He did. You may be going through something painful at the moment and thinking your leaves are dying and it hurts. You see pain and difficulty, but someone else may be looking at you at this very moment and seeing God's hand in your life.