From Ashes to Beauty

Behold ...our garden.

On January third of this year, we awoke to find that the previous night's storm had blessed us with a felled tree from the neighbor's property that destroyed part of our back fence. It was a mighty big tree.

Although it had been dead by the time we bought this house, it had teemed with life. In fact, Dennis loved to sit on the back porch to watch the antics of the raccoons, birds, and squirrels that called the ancient tree home. One time he saw a baby raccoon poke its head out of his nest's hole and take a tumble to the creek. When he went to check it out, the cute little coon was showing his mettle: climbing out of the creek, shaking the water off his fur, and getting ready to go back home!

All the joy the big tree gave us ended with its unfortunate demise. Or so we thought.

There followed days of backbreaking work to saw the tree into manageable pieces and, per city ordinance, drag the pieces into a makeshift, temporary fire pit (the only way the city would allow us to burn the wood). The big bonfire burned for hours, basically all day. Other than indentations in the ground where the tree had fallen, our once loved tree was toast. Literally. Little did we know that that was not the end of the story.

Months passed, Dennis tilled the ground and planted our garden. We watched expectantly for those first little sprouts to poke their green noses out of the ground and announce their beginning growth. Days passed. The plants matured. Their fruit began to produce. And our jaws dropped.

Can you see in the picture the difference between the middle plants and the ones on the edges? Those middle plants--taller, greener, more stalwart--are those plants that grew in the ashes of the burned tree.

Dennis had read that ashes were good for plants; now we saw it firsthand. Not only were the plants rising from the ashes greener, stronger, and taller--they produced profusely, giving us our largest, richest vegetables. When the tree fell, we thought that was the end of its purpose in our lives. Now we saw that its fall gave us an unexpected gift: bounty like none other. Wow.

So, what do we take away from this life story? Many things, not the least of which is: when you think your life is over, think again.

A friend's mother was in her early nineties when, as she prayed for her daughter's forthcoming ministry trip, God gave her a word for "a lady in a yellow dress". Long story short, my friend did indeed find the lady in the yellow dress, blessed the socks off of her with the word from God sent via her mother, and a life was lifted up and changed forever.

Another dear friend's mother, also in her early nineties, received a call from a niece facing some tremendous physical challenges. The older woman, whose mind sometimes takes unexpected twists and turns as far as cognition goes, took the opportunity to talk to her niece about the necessity of giving her life to the Lord. The niece, who had lived a life without Jesus, prayed the sinner's prayer with her aunt. The angels in Heaven had a field day.

Too old? Too many wrinkles? Not enough get up and go? Your life is worthless? Think again. God uses ashes to create beauty. God uses the old things to produce, bless, and create the new.

Your life is not over, friend. It is just beginning.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ... to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified" (Isaiah 61:1, 3).