Okay, back to my blogishness this so early morning. One of the things I adore about summer is that when I get up and come to write, I sit in my dining room and on the ceiling above me is the reflection of the pool water. Living on a rather woodsy piece of land, sunlight is not something I see much of in my house. But each tree we take down gives me a little more sun reflecting off the pool. Pretty soon we will be able to see our house on Google Earth and not just the tops of pine trees.
But all those trees. Not long ago I told you all about how this is not a forest but rather my back yard. Last weekend John rented a chipper and we got to chipping up all those trees we have taken down.
John came out back and asked if anyone wanted to work that day, knowing payment would involve a trip to Five Guys and water breaks. He got off easy if you ask me. By the time we were done, my teens discovered what boob sweat was and I do believe I was calling John, "Mr." an awful lot. We were battered and bruised and bleeding, although there weren't any "pumpers" as Maggie calls a bad cut.
If you've never cleaned up a fallen tree, you have no idea how many branches, twigs and leaves there are, not to mention pine needles. A zabiljilasilion and yes, English majors, I know that is not a word. Last time I checked the English language does evolve so I can make up words here. So there. "Recently my BFF2 Bogarted me from BFF1 and left me feeling very Bacalled." THAT is a sentence and it is contextually accurate. Where was I? Right, trees.
As I worked in that blazing heat like an illegal immigrant it occurred to me how much these trees teach us. Think about when Adam and Eve ate from that tree of knowledge of good and evil. I wonder if there was, a silent to them, swoosh in the Heavenlies. I wonder if the door of Hell opened not with a creak but rather swung open as the demons were released by the fall of man and the short time of Edan was no longer a paradise.
How many? How many demons and how many sins befell the earth that day and since? Let your holy imagination roam with me for a moment. Let each branch and each twig and each leaf and each seed represent a sin. We know that Satan is the prince of he air...imagine with me that he blew on the tree of knowledge of good and evil and that planted more trees and more and more.
Some trees took root easily like the tree of deception. It has sprouted on lands like a pine forest. Pride has deep roots that tangle throughout the earth. And sexual sin, well I am told it is as prolific in the world as maple trees are here in the North East.
Some trees of sin have taken millennium to take root. Abortion was never acceptable until the later part of the last century. I imagine it was a slow growing tree that has now become as large as a tulip tree.
It took five hours with seven of us cleaning up that yard to make a small dent in the mess that each tree made. And we are far from done.
How to clean up a nation that has been scattered with the seeds of sin like a forest. How?
Another tree. This one with had hand hewn beams. Not a leaf on it, not a twig nor a branch. Stripped bare with nothing but The Tree of Life nailed to it. Watered by his blood like a sap ran down it's side. I wonder if again that "swoosh" was heard in the Heavenlies as One died on that tree on a hill. I wonder if the enemy believed there was victory for his forest and minions. I wonder.
I wonder still if he knew that wood hath hope. When it's cut, it grows green again as the old song says. I wonder if the enemy knew that bare tree held the seed of Heaven and it could wipe out any forest of sin planted in the land or heart of any one who calls on His name for redemption. I wonder if the enemy of our souls was shocked to see the mighty One standing in victory at the Resurrection.
I wonder if we know that He longs to heal our land. He will never tolerate one branch or one twig or stick or one leaf of sin. He longs to plant that One Tree of Life in this nation once again. And when we allow him to, we will stand as the land of the free and the home of the brave.
What twigs are messing up your forest? Are there more branches then beams? Bring them to the Tree of Life: The antidote of a deadly forest.
Isaiah 55:12
"For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."
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