At my childhood home, there was a huge tree that was the focal point of the front yard. It was grand and gorgeous. It shaded the whole front yard. It was a second home for me, because I climbed all around its limbs all of the time. Mom had a flower bed all around the base of the trunk with stones. She kept all kinds of flowers growing there. It was nature's beauty.
Mom came home from a friend's house one day with a tiny twig. She quietly went to the flower bed and planted this twig at the base of the tree's trunk. No one noticed it, no big deal.
Over time this twig began to grow. Plush green leaves began to appear, and it began to grow up the tree. It was beautiful. I realized that it was ivy, like you see on those 'ivy league' college walls. I asked Mom if she realized it was ivy, and she said, "Not at the time, I just thought it was pretty."
As the vine kept growing around our beloved tree, no one really thought much of it, it was pretty to look at, so we went on with our lives. Before we knew it, the vines were all the way up the tree, it was taking over the whole tree. And, upon a deeper examination, we noticed that it was literally sucking the life out of the tree.
We began to pull part of the vines away, breaking them off, clipping them away. The vine was mostly gone, and you could see the tree better now, everything was good.........right? Nope....the vine grew again, and the tree started looking sickly again. Again we pulled out the clippers, pulled out the poison to try to kill it. Again, it worked for awhile, but it came right back.
This time, my husband got down at the base of the tree and began to dig....and dig...and dig. After a lot of hard work and sweat, he revealed a huge root base! I thought he had dug up the tree...but no, it was the root base of that little ivy twig!
Wow! Isn't that just like sin? We think it's no big deal... we plant it.. no one notices, meanwhile an elaboate root system is growing. Oh, for a little while some make think its pretty, or cool....but slowly you are spiritually dying.
Sometimes, if left long enough, it takes a lot of hard work to cut that sin out of our lives. The ivy is gone now, but it left a scar on the trunk of the tree. and sin does the same thing in our lives. We can get rid of it, get forgiveness, but it leaves a scar. Depends on how you look at it, but I believes it adds character. The scar is a reminder of what was, and that God stepped in and restored us!
Don't give up hope, don't let sin win....ask God to remove that sin, and grow in His will! Your beauty will return! Let the scar remind you that His mercy and grace and love are sufficient!!
