I was looking through my old notes on facebook. Did you even remember that they were there? ha! I found this old post that I had done. I said that I wanted to write a devotional book. This was installment #1.
“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed…”
Romans 5:3-5a
As I was walking around the campus of Baptist Bible College a few months after the Ice Storm in 2007, I noticed something that was miraculous. The trees were beginning to bloom. The miraculous thing is that these weren’t just any trees. These trees had endured some tough times. Not only did the ice storm take a beating on them, they had most of their limbs cut off. Yet, still, they were beginning to bloom once again; maybe even more beautiful than in the past. Many times life tends to be like this. We get beat on and sail some rough seas. We tend to think that it is the end of the world, but then we notice that once the trials are over, we begin to grow once again. Sometimes we need this pruning in order for us to grow to our full potential. We may not be able to see it now, but it is definitely there.
I think that this is so fitting for where I am in life right now. I feel like those trees. I can still remember so vividly how horrible they looked. It looked like someone had thrown giant matchsticks into the ground. There were no branches left. The winter had ripped them to shreds.
I truly have been feeling like my “limbs” have been violently ripped off. Life has been beating down and I am just standing here feeling like I can’t possible move on from all of this. It feels like the end of the world, but I know that it is not. I can’t wait to see what God will make of all of this. I am willing. I am ready. I want to grow and use all of these trials for HIS glory.
