Blooming – Even In Our Brokenness

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

As we drove through the parking lot of a local mall a couple of weeks ago, I was struck by the beauty of the tree in the photo that accompanies this post. We’d driven past this tree several times in recent weeks and I’d paid no attention to it. I first noticed it after a horrific windstorm had broken its limb. Sadness overtook me that the once, almost perfectly shaped tree now was broken, its limb laying on the ground as if it had given up.

It took a long time for that tree to grow to that size. Would it live after having such a large limb fall from the trunk, its inner parts exposed to the elements? Would rot set in? Would someone come along and cut off the broken limb and try to save the rest of the tree?

BLOSSOMS!

Imagine my surprise when just two weeks ago, we drove past this tree and there it was, in full bloom . . . even the broken limb laying on the ground. Before it bloomed, I had no idea it was a cherry tree. Indeed, even its broken limb, full of blossoms, was glorifying the Lord.

Isn’t that the way we are? In one way or another, each of us is or has been broken in one way or another. We’ve been hurt by our own choices or those of someone else, like the wind that blew through and broke the limb from that cherry tree. But like that tree, we, too, can be beautiful even in our brokenness. We just need to prune away the broken parts so that the body can thrive.

Blooming - Even In Our Brokenness @DDuPreeWilliams #faith #BloomWhereYou'rePlanted Share on X

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

If you’re feeling a bit broken these days for any reason, God gave us a light that shines in the darkest places of our lives. His name is Jesus.

The last time we drove by that tree, just this week, that broken limb was still laying on the ground, still in full bloom, but now the blossoms are withering. No one has come to prune it, to take off the broken limb so that the tree can rejuvenate and heal.  That broken limb is bound to the trunk of the tree by pieces that won’t let go on their own. That limb must be removed before the main tree can thrive again.

FRUIT BEARERS

We can be like that tree once it’s pruned. We can get rid of bitterness, anger, hurt,  or whatever being broken has done to us, and we can be restored and bear fruit.  Just lay your burdens at the foot of the cross. Jesus has already paid the price for your pruning. In fact, God is the Master Gardener (John 15:1-5).

Y’all go get out those pruning shears (the Word of God). Cut out those parts that would kill the whole tree, that is body, mind, spirit. Then, go bloom where you are planted!

 

Blessings, y’all!