As I learned of the details of Jessie’s accident, I felt a glimmer of hope rising when I discovered that one of her friends had carved her name, the date of her accident (3/16/09), and a cross in the bark of the very tree of her death as we knew her. A promise from those crevices within the bark quietly seeped into the crevices of my own shattered heart, whispering John 3:16 (New International Version), mystically intermingling Jessie within those ancient words, “For God so loved (Jessie) that He gave his only begotten Son (whose life changed on a tree) that whosoever believes in Him, shall not die but have everlasting life.”
It was as if someone had cut her life off at the root, leaving only a remnant. Within the chambers of my heart, I could hear the promises of the Old Testament in Isaiah 11:1 (NIV) vibrating, “A shoot would come up from the stump of Jesse, from the roots, a Branch will bear fruit.” My heart began massaging those words into the hope that Jessie’s stump would have a shoot, and that from her roots, a branch would appear and bear fruit.
We cared and nourished her stump with everything we had, tending to her hidden roots left below, in great hopes that after the harsh winter of rest and stillness, a shoot would appear. As we tended to hers, others showed up to care and tend to ours, for our own trees were fully exposed to the harsh and bitter elements of her winter.
Throughout this journey, God used one of my childhood loves—trees—to speak hope into some of my darkest moments. Sometimes they were live trees that nourished me as I nourished them or fought to save their lives from harsh weather and tragedies. Sometimes they were on canvases found at the exact moment I needed their unspeakable beauty and messages of hope. Sometimes they were dead, using their old branches to say goodbye to the past and prepare me for a rebirth. Wherever they appeared, the gentle presence of the powerful tree would provide an imagery to my heart of how God was working in the hidden unseen places of her recovery and mine. Of how God has always been using trees to guide, comfort, and restore me.
My prayer is that as I share these Tales of Hope from the Trees, they illuminate your dark forests with hope and comfort.