THE HEART'S TREE

What do we see when we gaze upon a profile is the branches of the heart? These are the expressions are the ones that the person has learned to sprout. Yet it may not be what truly is the root of the person’s essence.

It is so easy as a Christian to learn what to say and how to act in order to pass as a believer in a church setting. But I think we need to remember the words of our Lord when he was speaking about the religious leadership of his day. He called them (paraphrased) that they were “whitewash tombs” filled with dead men’s bones.

The problem was that these were individuals that had learned how to be religious. On the outside the appeared pious and righteous. But it was all an act. Their roots went deep into the soil of sin. They had filled with evil and corrupt desires.

Having a heart that is sinful describes all mankind no matter who we think we are. God’s spirit will always bring us to the awareness of our sin and need for repentance and forgiveness. And when one is rooted in this truth, there is no reason to create or manufactured form of blossom that might impress others, but is not based on truth or honesty.

How often I’ve witness this sad bouquet of self-righteousness appear on some church members tree. They love the false scent of goodness they have manufactured. For them being a Christian always translates into more concern over what others think about our whitewashed bark of pretense than the roots of our desires that God knows about.

The blossoms that count with God are the ones that flower from a heart willing to let the thorns be visible as well as the pedals. From the heart that knows it is corrupt and doesn’t pretend that somehow being forgiven has permanently transplanted one’s roots from sinful soil to saintly soil. It means allowing what others see to be the truth and to rejoice more in forgiveness and grace than our own filthy rags of our righteousness.

In the heart’s tree of the true believer the sap of self-centered motives is slowly replaced by the blood of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t somehow end the reality of who we have been. But it does give us a new cycle of being and chance to see how we are truly diseased trees in need of his trimming and help.

Some discover the joy of simply being a tree in one’s heart that lifts up towards in heaven in a burning desire to have Jesus tend to our growth and survival. For others it is simply a different garden in which to try and tower over the rest of humanity by making one’s branches appear greener and more desirable than anyone else.

In eternity though, the trees filled with God’s spirit and the blood of Jesus are vital and alive and will grow in due season. With others, they have nothing, but dead branches that are only worthy of being consumed by God’s judgment fire. I pray we live to seek the hand to God to tend our heart’s tree and don’t end up simply one more soul with branches that are dead and can never blossom with the Lord’s beauty.