The Bent, Beautiful Tree of Life

I’ve always loved twisty trees.

One day, while looking at an impossibly twisty tree, my daughter and I speculated that perhaps it had grown up very close to another tree and the two had twisted around each other. Then when one of the trees died, it left its twin in that bent but beautiful shape.

We’re all shaped by our past. But our history, whether it’s happy or tragic, doesn’t have the final word in our story. God can redeem even the most heart breaking stories. He never mislabels anything. He doesn’t call bad things good. But He is so good that He can bring beauty out of ashes.

So when I painted this curiously bent tree, I wanted to show that it was more than its past. Bathed in warm sunlight, it had become a beautiful home brimming with life. That’s why butterflies have broken free of their cocoons and are fluttering out of its leafy branches. The girl, standing on tip-toe beneath it, is receiving hope and life in its shelter.

Have you ever met someone who has suffered greatly and leaned into God for comfort and courage? I think of Corrie Ten Boom. She and her sister clung to God in the deep darkness of a concentration camp in Germany. And when she came out, she was more full of hope than when she went in. That seems impossible! And I really think it is, except that God does the impossible. He can redeem any story. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that Corrie shared her story with the world. I’ve clung to it over and over—reminding myself that if God was enough for Corrie and her sister in the darkest time imaginable, surely He will always be enough for me!

I can see myself in the girl standing under the bent, beautiful tree of life, because I stand in the shade of so many who have gone before me and trusted in the Lord. They give me courage. And I also see myself as the bent tree, being transformed by God’s grace into a place of encouragement for others. But more than anything, I see Jesus, who was bent and broken for all of us and who offers Himself as our sanctuary and hope.

Blessings to you today. God is doing beautiful things!

~Amy