Fallen Eucalyptus

Something strange happened in my garden the other day.  There was a eucalyptus tree lying in the grass in a place where you wouldn’t normally expect a eucalyptus tree to be.  It turns out the eucalyptus tree took a disliking to the snow in December 2010.  Months later when spring arrived, the tree decided not to bother putting out leaves, preferring to remain asleep.  Eventually the tree died, and that was that.  But in the last couple of years, shoots have started to emerge from the roots bringing forth a spray of fresh silver eucalyptus leaves.  Now the old tree trunk has given way and collapsed, but new life is emerging.

As I looked through my kitchen window at the fallen tree, I sensed God speaking.  There are of course many verses in Scripture that talk of growth from nothing, and life from death.  Famously Isaiah talks about a shoot ‘from the stump of Jesse’ as he prophesies about Jesus.  In the context of his death and resurrection, Jesus says that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die in order to bear fruit.  And so it is for those who follow Christ.  To receive God’s life we must die to self, and there begins the wrestling match between our old self and the new creation.  Not only between old ways and habits and the fresh living actions of being a disciple of Jesus, but also between old experiences and ingrained emotional responses and the freedom and joy of life in Christ.

When I saw the tree on the ground I thought, ‘Oh great! More work, I’ve got a tree to saw’.  When we give our lives to Jesus, in the words of Paul, ‘the old has gone, the new is here!’ – but occasionally dead branches and sticks still poke us in the eye.  We need to deal with the debris.  Jesus breaks off the branches that bear no fruit.  This is part of God’s healing.  Healing which, I believe, we all need to one degree or another.