Last week I returned to my cabin. It’s so beautiful right now. Flowers are blooming, the trees are standing tall. But a few years ago, it wasn’t like this. When I was younger, there was a big fire that went through our mountains. The fire burned trees really close to the cabin, so close you could see the burned trees from the porch. And that’s how it was. The forest to the side of our cabin was all dead, charred trees. Recently however, it’s changed. The forest is now coming back. You can still see where some of the dead trees are, but they are surrounded by new plants, new flowers, and new life.
As science loving person, I first thought about how we had talked about this in biology class. Ecosystems go through a trauma, shut down, but then they come back with a lot of new life, ready to thrive. Then I realized how utterly beautiful it is. For this can be the same for humans. This forest is a metaphor for our lives. With all the charge trees and short stumps, it seems impossible that it could be beautiful again. But now it’s phenomenal.
Life happens. There’s no way to avoid it. And most of the time it’s so hard to come to terms with it. But the only way we really can deal with life today is because of the hope for a better tomorrow. God has great plans for us. He sees what we are going through and holds our tears in His hands. He can comfort us in the promise of his love and we can know that once we get through this, we will grow and be fuller and beautiful in our hearts.
It’s in this hope that we are able to find strength to carry on. I’m writing this now in the middle of what used to be an ugly area, but now all i see is the beauty of the new life here. There are still some burned, fallen trees. However, the amount of lush green makes it seem like nothing. The scars of the fire still are present, but without them, we wouldn’t have the exponential beauty and power. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
And so, fear not in the middle of the blazing fire, for it may seem hard, but God is with you and knows the beauty and the growth that you cannot see right now.
Finding My True Reality 