Last December, a fast-and-furious windstorm wrought havoc in our neighborhood.
An alarming number of trees fell, including our biggest elderly pine at the front of the house. It thoughtfully fell onto the driveway causing minimal damage, but due to snow and a “very busy” tree guy, it has taken five months to remove.
The busy tree guy was followed by the messy stump guy, who spent a morning grinding down sizable stumps until the remnants of our lovely old tree were reduced to thousands of wood shavings and splinters smattered across the now-naked section of yard.
If I’m honest, I was rather sad to see the tree stumps pulverized. There’s something strangely nostalgic, something fairy-pixie-elfish about a lovely tree stump in my elaborate imagination…
But I also knew nothing was going to grow in that area while a hunk of wood and an elaborate, entangled root system took residence.
So, we’ve been working hard on ridding that area of all evidence that an aged tree once called it home. We’re making way for fresh growth, glorious color, and a new chapter for this eager stretch of earth to come back to life with beauty and health.
It reminds me of Hebrews 12:1 where we are told to throw off the sin that easily entangles us, that prevents us from growing and thriving as Christ followers: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (NIV).
Friend, I pray that we all might be aware of stumps and roots that are holding us back, bogging us down, blocking the Light. That we might, in God’s strength, do the heart-work necessary to be a glorious part of His garden of grace!
