That Gross Tree in My Yard

We moved into our first home last fall. It was September and Autumn was setting in. When we first looked at the house, we noticed this huge tree leaning against the neighbor's garage and wanted to make sure it wasn't on our property line (as it looks like it's going to cave the neighbor's garage in anyday now).



We have loathed that tree. It dumped a TON of leaves in the fall which collected on top of and killed the grass. It has gone through various phases of blooming, raining white dust on the yard and our cars and then dropping these weird seed-looking things. It is by far the messiest, grossest tree I've seen.



But to my surprise, I looked up in the tree and noticed little red dots on the limbs. This was no ordinary, gross tree...it is a cherry tree. Who knew! It's right up there now in esteem with those weeds we were going to pull out back that are now growing strawberries.



Sometimes we look at things, and cannot see clearly what it is we are looking at. The Apostle Paul described this experience when he spoke about "seeing in a mirror dimly." Sometimes in church life, in our personal life of faith, we feel that way--like we don't see things clearly. But if we are patient and able to work through "the gross stuff" that comes our way, we may find that God has a pleasant surprise in store for us.


Journey on...