Made Alive

When I was a kid, a car ran into our yard overnight and crashed into a small tree we had in the front yard. The trunk of the tree was only a few inches in diameter, so it snapped right in half, only connected by a small piece of bark on one side.

To my recollection, we never figured out who the driver (presumably a drunk one) was. We just woke up to see the tire tracks across our lawn and our broken tree. (Although since I did have my own private eye detective agency at the time, I dutifully measured the tire tracks and looked for other clues.)

Many would've declared the tree dead. Dug up the roots and planted a new one. But not my mom. She got this special tree tape and wrapped it up back together like an ace bandage on a sprained wrist. (Well, really more like an ace bandage on a severed leg...) Then she tied 3 ropes to the upper part of the broken tree and rooted them to the ground for stability.

It took a while, but eventually the ropes could go. And then one day, the tape could go, too. The tree had grown back together. Although it seemed like any hope for life had been taken by that mystery drunk driver, my mom put in the work needed to make life prevail. And for the near 20 years that have followed, the tree has thrived.

I was reminded of this tree when I read Ephesians 2:1-5 last week. It talks about how we were dead in our sins. But God, because of his great love, "made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions."

When it seemed like hope was gone, like we were dead beyond dead, God found a way to bring us life. This resurrected tree at my parents' house has become a beautiful picture of the life God gave us when he sent Jesus to die on another tree.

Looking at the tree today, you'd never know it had nearly died. The tire tracks in the grass have long since grown out and been mowed over, and the tree looks just like its matching one across the driveway.

This is my challenge. I am alive in Christ. I know that he rescued me from death. But the question is, do I stand firm as one who has been made alive? Or when people look at me, can they see a little bit of death still in me? A crack in the bark here, a dead leaf there?

We're alive! Let's show the world what new life looks like!