I have been doing a lot of work out in the forest. In today’s background photo you can see two huge piles of branches, sticker bushes, and brush debris heaped up and waiting to be burned. Hubby and I had a big bonfire two weeks ago in which we burned up all this debris.
As the bonfire was blazing, hubby commented that all my good work was being burned up. Ironic statement.
I had indeed worked very very hard to pull downed branches from the forest, to dig up sticker bushes by the roots, to cut back ferns, and to pull up blackberry runners. It was a lot of hard work. And it was all being burned up.
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escapes through the flames.” – 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
This past Saturday hubby and I had yet another big bonfire to burn up yet more branches, sticker bushes, and blackberry runners! We woke up Saturday morning to a dusting of snow over everything. Here you can see the fire as it was just getting started.
The fire is small in the photo … but it did not stay small. It grew very large … and very hot! So much so, that we were able to pile on heaps of green material – blackberry runners, damp with snow, and in an instant they caught flame and were burned up!
As I stood and gazed at the bonfire burning up yet another week’s worth of my “good works” I noticed that my daughter had sent me a link to brand new song which Amy Grant just wrote and released.
The title of the song is: Trees We’ll Never See
Standing there in the forest, by the blazing bonfire, I listened to the song for the first time.
The chorus of the song speaks of the brevity of our life … how one day this brief life will be over … God will call our spirit home to be with Him … but … til’ then it’s “praying for rain” (spiritually speaking) … “pulling up the weeds” (spiritually speaking) … “planting trees we’ll never see.”
I found this song to be very poignant! Standing there in the forest … burning up piles and piles of weeds! So much hard work in order to care for the forest, so that all the little baby cedar trees could grow tall and healthy … trees hubby and I planted, but we’ll never live to see grow 80’ tall.
That’s what each of our lives are about: “praying for rain” (spiritually speaking) … “pulling up weeds” (spiritually speaking) … “planting trees we’ll never see” (spiritually speaking).
We each are doing lots and lots of hard work each day! Lots of good works! Will our good works be burned up in the end? Or are our good works building God’s Kingdom? Are we “planting trees we’ll never see”?
Amy Grant – Trees We’ll Never See (Lyric Video) – YouTube
