Have you ever felt you had a problem so big and devastating you thought you’d never figure it out? I definitely have.
This past spring my parents came to visit me in Eastern Arizona. They live in Colorado where the winter weather is often worse in the spring than the winter and that was the case this May. Towards the end of their visit, they checked the weather for home and saw that a sizeable snowstorm was expected. They were a bit nervous as their apple and peach trees had already set their fruit for the year.
After the storm came through, they got word that several branches from trees had broken completely off and were laying on the ground. The fruit trees seemed to be unharmed and only time would tell if the fruit would continue to grow. The damage wasn’t where they expected it.
The large and beautiful tree in the center of their front yard was split in two. The entire top half of the tree was laying on the ground. Thankfully, the upper part of the tree that was on the ground was still attached to the trunk, to the life sustaining roots. It was lying there broken with its inner most parts exposed to the elements-much like how we feel when our best laid plans fall apart.
The weight of the snow from the storm was just too much and the main trunk gave way. This is often what it feels like when the storms of life rage around us. We can allow the weight of them to build up to a point where we can hold no more and then we break, in our heart, in our decisions, in our care for ourselves and others. We can lose our direction.
When I went to visit a few months later I was surprised by what I saw; the beautiful 25-foot-tall tree in the front yard, looking like it had always been a picture of health. “Not a single leaf”, my dad said when I commented on it, meaning; not a single leaf had died in the process of the damage, repair and new growth.
When my parents returned home three days after the major storm-imagine that tree laying there exposed to the elements for three days. Some people may have seen damage that severe and thought there was no saving the tree and simply chopped it down for firewood, but my dad knew it was worth saving so he and his friend went to work to put it back together.
They were able to lift the broken trunk and get it back connected to the base by bolting the two pieces together and wrapping it in a bandage of sorts. To brace the weight, they tied a few branches together for support. Then they hoped. As the days turned to weeks, they were able to see the loving repair and bit of support was just what was needed and the tree healed and began to grow, not even losing a single leaf in the process.
It has since continued to grow and is now several feet taller than before the storm with only temporary evidence of the life altering damage it sustained. When the storms of life pull at us and get us in a weakened state, we need the care and support of those with the tools and the know how to help us pull it together and get back to feeling whole and unharmed so we can continue to grow and fulfill our purpose.
As you can see in the images above; the tree when the main branch was laying broken; the repair holding the branches together to give it time to heal; and the tree as it looks now-healed and growing strong.
