The Color Green

Picture this: A forest, overgrown and tangled with branches of large, deep-rooted trees tangling into a nearly impassible (and certainly unpleasant place to go through) net. It is dry and the life of the forest is dying because the roots and branches and stifling and choking out any youth...And then one little spark, whether on purpose or by design, touches the dry leaves and twigs and -sizzle-. A forest fire has begun. Unstoppable and sweeping through the terrain, mercilessly devouring the contents of the forest. Then eventually burns itself out when there is nothing left to feed its flames.

Tragic. The forest, whose greenness and beauty and unique wildness once made the eyes that looked on it widen in awe, now gone. Sad...the desolation, the quiet, the dead-like stillness...

Things like that happen in life sometimes. I'm sure you have noticed how some things get so tangled and mangled or so large and unkempt that they just burn to the ground. Sometimes those things need to die in us. Like they have gotten so out of control that they just need to tangibly burn away.

So burnt stuff is what is left. Greeeeat. Now what?

The ashes and charred wood and the rotting things that are left over from the fire are a type of decomposition. The fire has broken them down into things small enough for other plants to use as nutrition. Decomposed materials are like fertilizer! Okay, so great, now we have a place were a forest used to be, and fertilizer. Gooood. But what is missing?

The seeds. In some cases for trees, the seed shells are SO hard that it takes the intense heat and brutality of a forest fire to break them open and allow them to start growing.

Lesson on botanical life and cycles officially over. So what am I saying though it, though?

Allow me to make this analogy: There are things in our lives that are the like the hard shells that wont break open and let things start growing. Pride is a really good example of that. Pride hardens us to change, to new things, and binds us. Sometimes God allows there to be some sort of fire that happens in our lives or hearts. It hurts, but it is also the only way we will finally be broken and begin to grow in that area of our lives. And Jesus' forgiveness and grace that He gives us is the fertilizer for that growth. It fuels it so that it is actually able to happen. But the thing is...that growth can't happen until all the other tangled mess is out of the way.

Now I hope you understand this:

Brokenness (perhaps specific) + Forgiveness (Received, Given, or both) = Growth

This idea can be applied to my life and to yours, too, I'm sure. My hope for you is that though you may find yourself broken at times, I hope that you will accept the Grace of God, live in it, and be opened to grow in whatever area of your life it may be. The beginning is the perfect place to start. God supplies you with whatever you need to grow. And there are good seeds just waiting to sprout. May your roots go deep, your trunk be strong, and your branches reaching wide.