Years ago, a seed was planted in my life that grew into a call to ministry.  I knew at an early age that God was calling me to help reach and save that which was lost and hurting.  Seeds are supposed to grow into things with the proper environmental factors and when God was the center of my life I grew strong into a tree full of foliage that bore much fruit.  Unfortunately, the story does not end there because over time God played a smaller and smaller role in my life until He was non-existent and this once beautiful tree was stripped down to nothing more than a sad Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  When I arrived there, you would think the light bulb would have gone off, but I still chose to do my own thing and deny the call God had placed on my life.  God literally had to cut me down to nothing more than a stump for me to see what He was calling me to.  I had to lose everything and be humbled to the point where God was all I had to realize He was all I needed.  In Daniel chapter 4 we read how King Nebuchadnezzar became so prideful that he said,”Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” As the words were still on his lips, he was stripped of everything he had and he lost all of his power and this was what happened to me.  I had become so prideful in myself and thought that my success was my own doing.  Being cut down was extremely humbling but even as a stump like in Daniel 4, God encircled me with an iron and bronze ring to protect me as he restored me to a better state than I was previously in.  This is where my metamorphosis began and this is where my care and compassion was birthed.  In my brokenness, God gave me such a heart for people who were suffering. Not one tear I shed was wasted and not one moment of anguish failed to serve a higher purpose in His eternal plan.

An article in Readers Digest says that roots of trees share nutrients with each other. If one tree gets water and sunlight, and another gets none, the tree with nutrients shares with ones that desperately need it. Among the petitions Jesus made to His Father in His high priestly prayer was this one. He prayed that we would be one, and love one another and show it by the way we care for each other. In this way, unbelievers would take notice and believe in Him. Life has a way of sucking the life out of us and without other healthy trees to aid; many trees would simply wither away.  I thank God for the mighty trees in my life and I pray that one day I too will be a tree that other trees can count on to provide help in their seasons of drought.