“BE STILL AND THOUGHTFUL,”

SAID THE WISE OLD TREE.

“LIFE MAY SEEM LONG,

BUT TIME WILL FLEE.”

–Angie Weiland Crosby–

___________________________

A Place of Grace

by Debbie Allen

Every night on the news, I hear story after story of the chaos, upheaval, and tragedies that ensue after a hurricane ravages a distant coastline; a tsunami washes away an entire village along with all the people living there, or some dormant volcano erupts unexpectedly, in a faraway country; its fiery lavas sweeping over every living thing in its pathway. These are tragedies most of us will only find ourselves caught in the middle of, when we’re watching a Hollywood disaster movie on our big-screen T. V., while being blown away by the winds of our own earsplitting surround-sound system. Yes…our adrenaline levels may rise to new and unprecedented heights during some of the more intense scenes, but nothing life-altering will ever come from the experience; unlike the headline stories mentioned above.  Disaster only becomes life-changing for us, when it strikes us personally. When we suddenly, find our own hands and our own feet entrenched in the uninvited chaos, upheaval, and sometimes tragic aftermath of a disaster that becomes an uninvited part of our life’s story forever.  Sometimes you only have to travel as far as your own back yard for a personal encounter with calamity. But even a backyard-disaster can strike with enough force to leave your heart changed forever!

My husband and I live in a 55yr-old brick, tri-level with a backyard the size of a football field. When we moved here many decades ago, there were three young cottonwood trees growing across the back portion of our yard. From the very beginning, the tree in the middle was dubbed our favorite. Three separate trunks grew out of the ground to form that one tree. Oh, if only that tree could talk… the stories it could tell! Its branches might speak of the countless variety of birds who built nests and hatched nestlings in its forks.  Or perhaps it remembers the hoot owls who perched in its treetop at midnight; to survey the rich hunting grounds below.  Maybe the incessant chattering of the squirrels stands out…the squirrels who daily turned its branches into highways and escape routes to flee on; after taunting all the neighborhood dogs. In later years, after my three boys came along, those branches provided shelter and cool shade over the sandbox they played in beneath them.  Eventually, every umbrella-like branch enticed all my boys to climb up into the tree; sometimes much higher than I liked! Oh… how they’d laugh at mom’s horrified reaction to seeing them braving such great heights! That is… until their own sons and daughters came along and learned to climb just as high!  For many years on Easter Sunday, we hid plastic eggs in the forks of that cottonwood for my grandchildren to find. Occasionally, I even coaxed my grown sons to climb back up on those branches and sit with their wives, long enough for me to snap their picture! Even in my sons’ adult years, the aged arms of that tree still found the strength to hold them up. Yes…that faithful, old tree was heavy-laden with countless adventure stories, and family memories that spanned the course of 46 years.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Disaster only becomes life-changing for us, when it strikes us personally!”

-D. Allen-

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The effects of time ravages all living things; and our cottonwood tree was no exception. Its once giant trunk, whose sturdy branches and leafy fingers beckoned to all my children, “Come on! Climb up! Come touch the sky!” now stood in my backyard as more of a silent memorial. Stripped of its former glory by time, weather, and tree trimmers, and missing two of its three main trunks; what was left standing looked more like a 30ft. monstrous sling shot…without the sling. Unwilling to part with its remains yet, my husband left it standing, knowing he would someday soon, be forced to cut it down.

Time passed and Jim’s “someday soon” never came, but something else did.  The backyard disaster I spoke about earlier. It was a perfect summer evening. Not even a breeze was blowing. No rain was falling, no lightning cracking, and no thunder boomers rumbling across the sky. The fragrance of freshly mowed grass still lingered in the warm sunshine; still left from Jim’s mowing just an hour earlier. Looking out across our backyard you would not have seen any sign of calamity whatsoever lurking on our horizon. And yet…disaster struck!  Overwhelmed by the sheer dead weight of its own unstable trunk; this backyard-giant finally toppled to the ground with a thunderous blow! Remnants of loose bark and rotted twigs flew in every direction. In the interval of dead silence that followed, Jim and I caught sight of our cottonwood’s corpse lying motionless on the ground. We headed straight for it.  Running towards this chaotic scene, my mind raced; trying to stifle the skewed whispers of the voice echoing inside my head. With great persistence, that voice tried its best to stir up anger inside of me concerning what just happened:

“I told you so!  That tree should’ve been cut down a l-o-n-g time ago; and THIS…THIS wouldn’t have happened!”    

“What if one of your GRANDCHILDREN had been ON that slide when that tree fell across IT???”

The thought of my grandchildren being involved in ANY way in this scene knocked the breath right out of me. But I knew choosing anger would’ve only added to the chaos in front of me. Two weeks earlier, I’d prayed, asking God to take away the worry and fear I’d connected to that tree and the danger of it falling on someone. I remembered ending my prayer with these words: “Lord…this tree is way too big for me to handle…so I’m putting it in Your Hands.”

 Standing ankle-deep in scattered bark and debris, my heart sensed this was more than just a backyard-disaster. As I stood there surveying the tree and recalling the words to my prayer; I began to see God’s Fingerprints all over the trunk of that giant corpse!  All my heart could do in that moment was to praise and thank my God for toppling that huge cottonwood right WHERE He did…right WHEN He did…and just HOW He did! I clearly recognized it was by the Grace of God that the only thing we lost that day was the slide on a jungle-gym swing set. However, what I gained was a renewed perspective and a fresh reminder for my heart of what it looks and feels like to be found standing in the midst of what I’m going to call, ‘a place of Grace.’ The place where the air is so thick and rich with the active Presence of God; there’s no denying it.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“What I gained in that moment was a renewed perspective and a fresh reminder for my heart, of what it looks and feels like to be found standing in the midst of ‘a place of Grace.’

-D. Allen-_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the book of Acts, one of God’s most faithful servants, Barnabas, describes perfectly what I mean by the phrase, ‘a place of Grace.’  Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to Antioch, Greece; specifically, to see for himself all the evidence of the undeniable work God was doing in the peoples’ lives; concerning salvation. It took Barnabas no time at all to recognize the reality of God’s active Presence there, too. Scriptures tell it this way:

“As soon as [Barnabas] arrived, he saw that God was behind and in it all.” (Acts 11:23a CSB)

“God was behind and in it all.”  What an amazing revelation when our hearts perceive such a miracle! How many times in life have we missed seeing God’s Fingerprints in the midst of our tribulation? When disaster strikes us and the pieces of our world come crashing down around us; how often do we fail to recognize that our own feet may be standing in our own ‘place of Grace’? Too often, we miss seeing it because our eyes are looking down, focused only on the chaos and devastation surrounding us. God’s solution to this dilemma is found in Isaiah 40, where He reminds us to, “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens.”  For it’s in those moments when we choose to do so, that the eyes of our hearts are opened to see God ‘behind and in it all.’ We can’t see something we’re not even looking for.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Sometimes God allows something in your life that only He can fix, so that YOU will get

to see that He is the ONE who can fix it.”

-Tony Evans–_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From ancient times to the present day, whether witnessing an unbelievable spiritual transformation, or standing in the midst of our own backyard tribulation, our hearts are transformed in those times when we lift up our eyes and acknowledge that our feet have been planted in ‘a place of Grace.’  In this place…our hearts are strengthened, and our devotion deepened to the reality of the living and active Presence of God, in every detail of both our lives and our struggles. You see, finding your feet planted in ‘a place of Grace’ isn’t all-about-us. It’s about God, and the unfathomable extravagance of the ways He chooses to demonstrate His Love, Care, and Divine Favor in each of our lives.

“Sometimes God allows something in your life that only He can fix, so that YOU will get to see that He is the ONE who can fix it.” -Tony Evans–

Lord, thank you for hearing all the cries of Your children’s hearts. We live in a world filled with impending disasters waiting to happen. We never know when one of them might come crashing down around us. You work in our every affliction to bring good out of it. When we are standing in the middle of chaos and upheaval…enable us to “lift up our eyes and see” that You, Lord, are “behind and in it all.” Grant us eyes and hearts that recognize when our own feet have been planted in ‘a place of Grace’.  For even in our suffering, your Spirit provides a fresh experience of Your Love, Care, and Divine Favor in our lives. We cry out like Job, asking You to help us to “lay our cause before You. You perform wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.” (Job 5: 8-9 NIV).  Yes, the troubles of this world are many and great…but You are so much Greater! Like Your word tells us, “There is no one like You!” Thank you, Lord, for loving us and refreshing our hearts in the amazing ways that you do.

In Jesus’ Name…Amen