Previously in this series of Regeneration Trees, I have seen bright, flashy darkness; and I have seen barrenness opening itself to something slightly less dark; and then I saw this.
This was a tree who could not stand the winds of a hurricane. It was broken, beaten, and bowed down with its upper branches touching the ground. It lay like that for some time. Bowed down, to what? The weight of its branches were too much, its bowed-down-ness had to be cut free. The sharpness of the blade that sliced its trunk and branches are evident in the splinters fraying from the base. A clean straight line that looks like death, it looks like an end, it looks like it has lost. It is not just bowed down, it is taken. All but the very baseness of this tree is taken. A hint of the bright, flashy darkness is fallen beside it, the orange flame remains, not forgotten.
And wrapped around, a new root. So small, so insignificant by comparison. Wrapping all around. Reaching up. Reaching out. Taken down, emptied out, and wrapped around. New life springs forth. New hope extends itself, just barely above the line of death. Splinters of defeat are paralleled by twigs of hope, weak, small, fragile hope. It has a great trunk to overcome, the growing will not be without obstacles. It will not be without barriers. But it will be. Life will be again. It will be new. It will be renewed.
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him…” Isaiah 11: 1-2
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