The Scars of a Mangled Tree

Tree hit by lightning had its bark blown off

I was on a walk when I saw this tree. It is a huge tree, very tall, and all along it's trunk, there were bits and pieces of bark shredded off the tree. I stood staring at it, wondering if it had been hit by lightning. Bark was blown off in various sections, and a large hole in the dirt at its base also gaped inexplicably. What had happened here?

Fortunately, I didn't have to wonder for long. A man who was working on cleaning up the mess asked me if I had ever seen the effects of lightning.
"This is why my mother told me not to take a bath in a thunderstorm. See that bark? Where it is blown away is the path the lightning followed of the wet bark."
"And what's the hole in the ground from?" I asked.
"The lightning followed the roots and blew out the dirt."

The power of the lightning was terrifying to behold.

"Is the tree dead?" I asked.
"Oh yes. It will have to come down. Would you like your picture by the tree?"
"OH no...that's ok."
"Oh come now," he said, "You must have a kid at home, a ten year old or less, who would like to see this."

I believe he was flattering me. My youngest is 20. My oldest is 31. But to humor him, I posed for the picture.

Imagine being that tree. There you are, minding your own business in the midst of a violent storm, and just because you have the misfortune to be tall and therefore a target for lightning, it blows off all your skin and you are now still standing looking every bit alive ... but dead.

I don't know about you, but I have been that tree. A target because of some difference from the surrounding trees, and despite doing nothing to provoke attack, attack comes and destroys. You may look alive, but something critical in your life has been violently snuffed out by a power you have no control over. Even worse, sometimes you are a target because of things you have done. Then the punishment is deserved, but no less unwelcome.

THIS is why we need Jesus. All of us have been that tree. None of us can control the forces that seek to destroy us to separate us from the love of God.  Sin is like the dampness in the bark that allows the destructive force of the lightning to find a path in our lives that destroys us.

BUT here is the good news. We are dead in our sin, a tree with our bark blown off and our roots destroyed. But Jesus took all that horrific, dangerous sin that is a conduit of Satan's power in our lives and He bore it on his mangled body on the cross. (The Bible even sometimes refers to the cross as a tree!) Jesus died to pay the penalty we deserved and the full wrath of the judgement for our sin fell on Him. The lightning struck Him, and left us unscathed. We were set free by His sacrifice on our behalf.

All we have to do in return is say we accept what He did for us. That is the remarkable gift of God, who loves us so much that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

Why would anyone refuse such an incomparable gift? I know in my case, I was too proud to admit I could not save myself. I would not humble myself to submit to God. How much I wish I had before my sin so disfigured my soul. As I looked at the scarred tree, I thought of how foolish I had been.

All that pierced my heart as I gazed at the stricken tree.


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1 Peter 2:24   

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Ephesians 2: 4-7
⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,