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.
… I am struggling and everything seems to be mounting up against me I know what I am fighting because the spirit of this world is against me because I have chosen serve God . . .
I know God loves me and I do have value . . .so I searched up “Value” I ran across this beautiful graphic of cherry blossoms, I was drawn to it because of the beauty of the message on the picture, oh so beautiful, exactly what I wanted to say. I clicked on the picture and came to your site. The music alone has such beauty, and I am sitting here crying, after reading you’re the story of your “dried up tree”, you said the key words, God drew me to read what you said about the dried up cherry tree, it was so beautiful. I want to say thank you. We are on the same page. Here I am crying because My Father loved me so much. . . He sent me to your website because I needed some encouragement also.
Your story is so powerful . . . May our wonderful creator . . . continue to bless you and all that you do, because I know I am valuable to him just as the cherry tree is producing fruit because of His everlasting love, and mercy.
We are much like the cherry tree was in human eyes dead, waiting to be cut down, but . . . the life of the tree was spared, because there was still a valuable life in the root worth being saved. Jesus sent me to your sight to let me know even though I am going through the trials of life and it seems like everything is going wrong – there is restoration and an abundant life. I feel like he is watering my withering heart so that I can bring forth fruit and giving me the zeal to continue to teach . . . It’s not what we see it’s what he sees in us that is important.
. . . just like the cherry tree, he gives us the will to go forth in abundance beyond what is normal. This is where he used you and your message. Keep up the wonderful work because the end is so close and we need to let people know that we have a life-saving message. . . . So for all you do in your beautiful website, I will be just another reader . . . If you don’t mind, I will be directing people to your words of encouragement, thanks for making my day. So my sister I will be visiting a lot and please pray for me . . . because he “values” his creations, he wants us to have abundant life, everlasting.
Deborah
Deborah,
Thank you for the gracious comments!
Yes, our Lord God does value us and He wants us to have abundant life through Jesus Christ. Please “subscribe” to the blog, if you haven’t yet. I’m sending you a lengthier email message reply. Bless you!
Kathi