PICTURED: The charred bark of a pine tree in bushland near Lennox Head, NSW.
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up. Ecclesiastes 3: 1-3
Walking through the deep powder grey ash of a burned out forest leaves you with an eerie feeling.. Only days before there were birds in the trees and life everywhere… but now the charred landscape is void of animals and insects. This bushland has been devastated, consumed by searing heat and flame. But quietly and miraculously this lifeless land will again come back to life. In all that God has created exists the ability to heal and reproduce new life for a new season. Many plants and trees actually need fire to reproduce. The seed of a Jack pine tree can only be released under extreme heat when the pine cones are burned.
So it is with our lives… Sometimes God will allow us to go through a season of loss where everything seems to be taken or destroyed. It is in those times we must choose humility and faith over pride and fear. God helps us to rebuild our lives and bring us into even greater seasons when we put our trust in Him. Just as Christ was raised back to life after death on the Cross… He can do that in every season of our lives.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11: 25-26
Thanks again for your friendship and support.
Godspeed.
Steve
