Dead Tree

For months, I have looked out my window and seen the eye-sore of a pulled up, dead tree piled high in the corner of our yard. We have done nothing with it in the expectation that someone else would take care of this problem: maybe our landlord or the town house association. But no one has, and there the rotting tree has been. Today, enjoying the pleasant weather after a long winter, I sat to journal outside. I suddenly, and unexpectedly, got the urge to clear away the dead tree. It's funny the timing of things because this morning I heard a wonderful message about taking off the old man, getting rid of the dead carcass we were before Christ. So as I piled up dead branches, trunk, and roots in my arms, I prayed that God would do that in my heart, that He would reveal the lies and fears I have held onto, that He would pile them up in his arms and take them to the burn heap. I prayed He would  do that in the hearts of the people I love. I realized that no new growth would come in that patch, except weeds and bugs, if the tree were still there. So it is in our lives, no new fruit can grow were the old, dead man is piled up. Spring time is close at hand, so the dead, rotting tree in us, must be cleared out to make way for the new life He longs to give.