Ever feel like that poor tree looks?
This little tree sits in my front yard, right by by driveway. I love it. I love to have something lit outside that can be seen from Poor House Road, something I can see from a little distance that gives me that almost home feeling. This little tree is it.
I went out, chopped it down with a saw that’s at least 100 years old with its original blade. It wasn’t so bad. It only took about 20 minutes to cut the 2 inch trunk. I drug it out of a thick brush area, cleaned all the leaves out of it, and prepared to put it in my wheel barrow. Now, my experience with the wind out here reminded me that I definitely needed to have it secure or plop it would go. So I thought a bit about how to secure it and decided it was a little too tall. I cut off another 12 inches from the bottom. The gale force winds out here blowing against a spindly seven foot tree, secured only by rocks and bricks just wasn’t going to cut it.
I finally heaved it upright and many cedar splinters, many heavy rocks and bricks, and many stick wedges later, I felt like it was reasonably secure. I was so excited about this little tree. You know how it is when you have a vision in your head and my vision was coming to life.
I ran the 100 miles of extension cord wrapped with electrical tape and started decorating. Lights first. Of course, we all know what happened with the lights. Five strands, two worked, but I needed just one more. I found one more strand and voila, it was lit from top to bottom. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize at the time, the top strand of lights was a different color white. Tony tried to explain something about cool LED, or white LED, warm LED, or something like that. For an OCD person it was a little bothersome, but what could I do, that’s all I had and I was determined to use what I had.
Next, I took some tinsel and wrapped, and wrapped, and wrapped. It was nearly perfect. Then came the crowning moment — the star. But…I couldn’t reach the top, even standing on a bucket or the bumper of my car. I had to wait until Tony got home. Until then, I busied myself with greenery around the bottom, going for that homespun vintage Christmas look. Except for the star, it was perfect in my eyes. I could smell chestnuts roasting on an open fire…
And then, a week later we had a huge windstorm. Yep, 25 mph sustained, 45 mph gusts. I looked out one morning and could see she was defiantly blowing in the wind with lights bouncing and tinsel trailing, but standing still thumbing her branches to the wind. Ten minutes later I looked out and it was woman down, wheel barrow and all. I was crushed. After the wind storm, I determined to put her upright again. But, of course, I needed to make some adjustments to prevent it from happening again. She needed to be more secure.
So, I’m back at it, heaving this wobbly, gangly, thin trunked tree back into the wheel barrow. I’m stacking more rocks around securing the foundation of the tree. I’m wedging more heavy sticks and branches around the base to secure it. It worked! Three weeks later, despite some torrential rains and gale force winds my tree still stands shining bright for all to see. Admittedly, it looks a little bedraggled — lights hanging off, tinsel knotted, and my star all whopper-jawed, but even though it’s leaning a little, slightly tilted, that baby is standing tall.
Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken. Isaiah 28:16
This foundation stone the Lord is talking about we just celebrated last week — Jesus! He secures us. He keeps us from toppling over during the gale force winds. If He is our foundation, if He is the one securing us in the wheel barrow of life, we may be slightly disheveled, our star may be askew, but we never topple over, we are firmly secured by the Cornerstone.
The start of a new year is a great time to take a look at our lives and evaluate what exactly is securing us? What stones are stacked against our trunks? Storms are abrewin’ in this world. We can clearly see that. We might want to think about what is securing us, keeping us upright. Whoever believes need never be shaken. Do you believe?