Restoration

I kayaked Saturday in the 85 degree day because we were warned today would be cold and rainy, and so would the first half of the week. There were a lot of motor boats out, so it wasn't the peaceful calm river I most enjoy, but God is always showing me hidden treasures.

Yesterday's message was contained in this unusual tree root. I don't know what kind of a tree it is. It looks like a mangrove tree root...but the rest of the tree doesn't look like a mangrove. I think it is a tree that started to fall, and its roots went into action, growing wildly despite their precarious upturned position. Somehow, they managed to anchor the toppling tree, arrest its collapse, and make this beautiful, intricate, artistic, tangle. The tree will never be straight up and down, like all the trees around it, but it is alive, and even thriving in its slanted state.

This is what I visualize happens when we fall away from God, veer from His intended path, and almost topple to destruction. Just in time, we turn back, repent, and despite the consequences of our terrible choices, manage to survive. God can indeed restore us, make us grow, and keep us upright...but the tangled mess that is made by our near collapse will always be a part of us. It is not the beautiful solid straight trunk with roots deep underground that God may have intended, but He can still make something sturdy and beautiful out of the tangled mess.

Should other trees begin to fall, perhaps they may see the slanted tree with those victorious, tangled roots, and have hope that they too might be saved and restored.

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Jeremiah 30:17 

For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’

Psalm 51:12 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.