Artist and Arborist

Hudson Mills Park, Michigan.  Photo by Bob Coller    
My friend Bob graciously granted me permission to share this amazing photograph with you.

Stripped Bare
This season brings us a magnificent display as trees present their finale before dropping their leaves to face the winter months.
 
Artists appreciate the spare beauty of bare wood, the tree’s architecture exposed, the stoic trunk, hardy limbs, and lithe branches that dance upward, seeking light.
 
Arborists inspect the naked trees, looking for dead limbs or branches that took a wrong turn and abrade one another. When the leaves fall, the true structure of the tree is visible. The arborist plans corrective pruning to improve the tree.
 
The leaves of summer cover a multitude of sins.
 
Aren’t we just like that? I want to show the world my best self, clothed in attitudes that I can change, like a sweater, to suit the moment.
 
It comforts me to know that God is not misled by my wardrobe changes. He sees my flaws and knows what to trim away to make me stronger, better, more as He intended me to be.
 
And it comforts me to know that He values His beautiful creation (me…and you), dead limbs, rubbing branches, and all.

 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me.”
John 15:1-4 (NLT)