I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV)
We were busy that summer, several years ago – so busy that my husband, Ron, didn’t have the time or the opportunity to cut down the dead little cherry tree and chop it into a small pile of firewood for the coming winter.
Not a single leaf had developed on the tree that spring. No blossoms in late spring. No cherries in the summer. The branches were withered and barren. The once beautiful and bountiful domestic cherry tree was lifeless. It must have been the hard winter, we each thought, and we spoke about it occasionally throughout that busy summer. After all, cherry trees have a life span of about 20 years. This tree is already nearly 30 years old.
As winter neared, Ron began cutting wood, but he had his eye on bigger trees, providing mega piles of wood, so he still neglected cutting down the dead little cherry tree in the northeast corner of the yard.
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Winter came. The house was heated from maple, ash, and walnut – not from the wood of the dead little cherry tree. As spring neared, we talked about getting rid of that dead little cherry tree before we got busy on other spring projects.
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Finally spring arrived. As usual, we marveled in the delight of new life outdoors. We started the yard work. When we went to the northeast corner of the yard and saw the little cherry tree, we were in awe! It was no longer dead!
The little tree had budded with leaves.
Shortly thereafter, it burst forth in blossoms. 
Then those blossoms turned into cherries, and the tree flourished again!
We had given up on the tree, but it still had life!
New life!
Full life!
You see, Ron and I don’t know much about cherry trees. We had merely looked at it from the outside, unaware of all it had to offer us – unaware of its potential.
Since its dead summer several years ago, that cherry tree has repeatedly produced fruit. In fact, its harvest was so great this summer that the weight of the cherries split a limb off the tree.
– further evidence that Ron and I don’t know much about cherry trees.
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It should have been trimmed and pruned. It needed care. We had neglected it.
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The way we cared for that cherry tree is SO unlike the way our Heavenly Father cares for us!
He takes what others perceive as dead – and He brings new life!
He offers full, abundant life to us.
When we open His Word, we find it.
We bud.
We bloom.
We flourish.
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That beautiful, bountiful, broken cherry tree
and the awesome, stirring Word of God
speak to me.
I look at myself.
I look at others.
And in place of dead, withered, and barren, I begin to see life.
