dogwood beauty

Right now there’s a dogwood tree in our backyard, thick with lovely white blooms.

It didn’t bloom when we first bought the house.  Hidden in the shadows of a large, overbearing Hickory, I suppose it didn’t get enough sun.  For the longest time I wasn’t sure if it was dead or alive, or if it was truly a dogwood, because I had never seen it flower.

Two summers ago we cut down the giant Hickory.  Lo and behold, our little dogwood bloomed.

When the hickory was still standing, I hadn’t noticed it, but the truth is, little dogwood tree had grown up in such a strange shape.  Some would think it is deformed, its shape is so bent and strangely figured.

But, I know – our sweet little dogwood that once was affected by the dark shadows, is now set free in the sunshine, growing into the dogwood tree it was meant to be.  It is stretching up in new directions.

I’m reminded of this truth in my own life:  There are times and seasons for the shade of disappointment and suffering, but also times for the sunlight of growth and great gains.  It is true that the struggles of life may have a part in shaping who I am.  However,  after that darkness, when the full, honest, light of the Son begins to shine in my life, then I find myself becoming the beauty he intended, blooming with the fruit of His Spirit.