Tree speak: How God helps us grow
December 5, 2011 | Encouragement for Today, Faith: Knowing Christ, Feelings: Intentional freedom
If you came over from Encouragement for Today, welcome!
Yesterday I carried off two large sections of my butterfly tree and set them by the curb for trash pickup. The wind had hit my house hard the night before, and evidently it swirled around my front porch, creating chaos.
“It makes me sad,” I told my husband. “I loved that butterfly tree.”
I received more joy from this one tree than anything else in my garden. All spring long butterflies and hummingbirds flutter around the clusters of lilac flowers that grace the tree. When I walk along the sidewalk the fragrance of those flowers greeted me.
“It’s still alive,” Richard reminded me. “You lost a large section, but it’s still standing.”
I looked back at the remnants of the tree. It was fractured and misshapen. Winter has hit and the green leaves were silvery and the flowers dormant.
But I will nurture that tree back to health. Taking away the dead branches is the first step. Next I will feed the roots, mulch them, and shape the remaining branches. It will not be the same tree, but I expect next spring it will bloom as beautiful as ever. And with the dead and weak branches pruned away, it will flourish. It won’t look the same, but I am excited to see what emerges.
In my own life, I do not look the same as I did 30+ years ago when I fell in love with my Savior.
I’ve had branches torn away by unexpected winds — when I had cancer, when my son was hurt by a drunk driver, when my daughter was born with birth defects, when financially we had no clue how we would make it though we were working as hard as we knew how.
My Heavenly Father tenderly carried the broken branches away and nourished what remained. Showing me that I could trust Him. That massive winds couldn’t destroy His love for me, or His plan for me.
I was reshaped over and over again as He pruned away lack of self control, anger, selfish ambition, and any other shoot or budding branch that shouldn’t be there.
I learned that I needed continual nourishment, whether it was spring or winter, hard times or good, and that this created a reserve of spiritual strength that sustained me no matter where I was in life. I began to recognize when that reserve dipped low and stopped whatever seemed most important at that moment to get alone with God, and let His presence and His Word fill me back up.
The mulch was His covering — all that things I could not be for myself. He was my Shelter, Almighty God, Healer, Peace, Abba Father, and so much more.
I did not mourn what was taken away, but rather rejoiced in the new growth, even if my life looked different than it once did. God was taking me a in a new direction, and showing me His plans for my life, rather than my own.
Perhaps you can identify with my friend, Vera, whose story I told in the Encouragement for Today devo today. You are in the heat of battle and you sense God drawing you close. Or perhaps, like me there are those times you desire to grow. You may not feel broken, but you feel stunted spiritually and you want more.
Like my beautiful butterfly bush, when you willingly let God carry away the dead branches, prune what robs you of nourishment and growth, go to Him for spiritual food, and allow Him be what you cannot be for yourself, you’ll discover a new shape emerging inside of you and new life is ahead.
And what will that look like when it’s all said and done? No one knows, but you will never be the same again. You will be exactly what God desires you to be, and what He knows you can be.
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Thanks for 2 beautiful tree analogys and the feeding of our faith. Just what I needed today
December 5th, 2011 at 1:36 pmSuzie, your words are beautiful this morning. I was hoping you would see the new opportunity for your butterfly bush. Your analogy to our lives and our growth in Faith and the Living Word of our Holy Father was perfectly described. Thank you for a ‘keeper’ this morning. It will not be just Encouragement for Today; but for many days to come.
December 5th, 2011 at 2:10 pmI learn the same things in a hay field. Praying for Vera and you.
December 5th, 2011 at 2:17 pmI really needed this message today. I, actually my husband and I, are in a very bad place at the moment. Now I realize I have to draw near to God and let Him do the pruning even though I cannot understand it at the moment.
December 5th, 2011 at 3:18 pmDear Siz,
Your encouragement for today is not for one day but all the time. I experience this peace anytime am reading from you. This encouragement for today is from the heart of God. Am really bless,
God bless you.
December 6th, 2011 at 12:31 amHi Suzie
Many thanks for your words. I accepted Christ as my Saviour when I was 14 and am now 36, but still feel like a spiritual “baby”. I feel as though I am not growing. It seems that at every turn in my and my husband’s life, we are just going backwards, and no matter how hard we work we cannot move forward. I have a beautiful little girl of 4 years old and I so wish I could give her more but I seem to let my stress spill over and she gets the brunt of my frustrations. I am so exhausted every day that it is too easy to let my Bible study and prayer time fall away. Any words of advice or scripture would be much appreciated.
God bless you and your family
December 7th, 2011 at 2:55 am