This is just a little something I wrote back in 2005, and revised in 2006. Since we just had another Ice Storm, I thought I'd pull it out and share with you all.
It is amazing how God can take an inanimate object and turn it into a thing of beauty. In January 2005 we had an ice storm. The trees were coated with ice. What was once a dead and lifeless looking tree, now glowed and sparkled with light. Where just a few hours before a dark forest stood, with grasping arms reaching toward the sky, an enchanted woods now stands. Tall sentinels stand, encased in glittering splendor. Tiny shrubs are turned into a blaze of shimmering light. With one touch of the Master’s hand, something that once looked ugly -- a tree devoid of leaves -- turns into a thing of beauty that not even the finest painter on earth can recreate. If God does such beautiful work on trees, how much more beautiful and like Him can He mold us? Those trees did not look up to Him and ask “Why did you encase us in ice? It is cold and wet, and it is making some of our branches crack. This is not fair, why do I have to endure the pain?” We would think that asking God such questions would be silly, but we see the bigger picture. Yes the ice is cold, and yes the branches crack, but oh the beauty when the sunlight falls on the ice encased trees. The light and beauty make up for the cold feeling they had before. Just as the sun lit up the trees and turned their sorrow into beauty, the Son of God wants to shine upon us and turn our sorrows, our pain, our loneliness, our disappointment, and our confusion into a wonderful display of God’s amazing Grace. Just as the tree is made into a thing of beauty by suffering through the storm, the storms we face in this life have a purpose. Trust Him, He knows the beauty that will follow the storm.
1/2005 Revised 6/3/2006 JRH
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