This year brought so many new challenges that I am not even sure how I got here. What I do know is that God is still in control and I am going to just keep moving forward.
I sat in my kitchen this Saturday morning watching as the birds came to the feeder. It was a very cold New Years Day and there weren’t as many to watch. As I sat looking out the window, I noticed the tree across the street…..and this post came right into my head just as quickly as I could write it down.
A few years ago the people a block over decided to take down their tree. I was home that morning, watching as the old tree started to come down. One at a time, the branches were cut until finally, even the main trunk was gone. The tree they cut down was next to the one in this picture. The two trees had grown together over the years and in the summertime you could barely see that there were two of them. The one on the right leaned to the right and the one on the left leaned to the left, but they both grew a bit more every year. They stood there together, side by side.
When the one on the left was taken down, the other looked so odd, so out of place. It looked like something was wrong with it. One whole side seemed to be missing and everything was going the wrong direction. I surely wish now that I had taken a picture of it that day. I recall looking at it for many months, wondering if it would ever look right again. I wondered if it would ever not look funny. Could it ever not look like it was part of a pair ever again?
The weight of these words ring in my head as I see the unmistakable parallels to my own journey.
Almost two years have gone by since my marriage was changed forever and it has been 14 months since the final stamp was placed on the papers that ended our 25 years together. Like that crooked tree, my life felt quite off-centered, but I am starting to see the end of the tunnel.
Look at that beautiful tree in the photo I took today……
The similarities between my life and the tree were right in front of me today. The tree is starting to ‘right’ itself. It is filling in where there used to be something else, or in my case, someone else. These raw emotions seem so simplified when the comparison is made to that sleeping Ash Tree, but you can’t miss what happened here. She began to grow in on that one side. With the other tree gone, her branches began to spread. The limbs of that remaining tree began to open up to fill the void. I believe someday that people might not notice that there was once another tree there. That tree will someday look like it was always there by itself, standing tall, filled in and well-balanced. It will grow evenly, strong enough to take on the toughest winds, bending with the summer breezes and reaching out evenly in every direction.
If you are going through something like I did, I want you to know…..there is room for you to grow. That vacancy doesn’t need to define you. Over time you will slowly regain yourself again. Sometimes it is going to be hard. Other times you will think you are doing alright only to be surprised by an emotion that strikes a bit harder than you expected. But my beautiful friend, your God is shining down on you. Stretch up into the sky and regain your posture. You will stand tall again.
Romans 8:28:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”1
DISCLAIMER:
This blog is written by the site owner, Christine DuRoss, and is my personal opinion. It is not intended to be taken as health, medical, legal, marital, parenting, personal or financial advice.
I am not a professional counselor, coach, doctor or health professional. I am not a legal professional nor should my views be consider legal advice in any way.
¹Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
