My children were small when Disney put out the movie Pocahontas in 1995. In it there was a tree by the name of Grandmother Willow. I won’t go into all the details of the movie, but anytime Pocahontas needed advice, she turned to Grandmother Willow to speak to her.

Our ranch in the Texas Hill Country has a large pecan bottom on it. Many of the trees there are over 70 years old. We have friends that are over 85 years old that remember coming to the ranch as teens and collecting pecans to sell to others. These are old trees and have lived through a lot of draughts, storms, and winds. Life for these trees has not always been easy. The picture below is one that was taken in March, 2018.

About 3 years ago, I noticed that this tree was developing a pretty good hole in the bottom of it. The hole started about where my granddaughter’s head is in the picture below. It was about 8-10” in diameter. I would look at each time I would pass by the tree, wondering what type of “varmint” had done this to one of our old pecan tree. Each trip to the ranch I noticed that the hole in the tree was larger. Then it happened. One day when I was driving past it, I noticed that you could see daylight all the way through it. I had to get out and investigate it. Sure enough, you could see all the way through the tree. I took a picture of my husband peering through one side of the tree all the way to the other side.

The next trip came and there was another large hole in the tree. This time, the insides of the tree looked like it had been scraped out…something that had claws was ravaging it. Each time I came, the inside of the tree had become more hollow and more holes were visible. By now, I could stick my head up inside one of the holes and look way up into the tree. The large limbs were starting to show large holes in them and some of them had daylight shining through. It was then that this tree started speaking to me…not literally, but Jesus was teaching me a lesson through this old pecan tree. Like Pocahontas was drawn to Grandmother Willow in the movie, I too am drawn to this tree.

Recently, I spoke a word of encouragement to a group of girls that had been street kids in Nairobi. I knew these girls. I had visited with them before. I knew that many had sold themselves in order to feed their siblings. I knew stories of rape, beatings, pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse. These were girls that had been ravaged by sin, theirs and the result of others sin. Their insides had been torn out. They were hollow. When I met them a year ago, they had very little “life” left in them. This tree was my encouragement to them.

My husband, Terry, and I have discussed this tree many times. When I told him that I was writing this devotional, I asked him his insights. So many Bible stories came to mind….Rahab, Ruth, David and Bathsheba, Apostle Paul, Peter….you get the picture. Many of our faith heroes had lives that were hollow before their relationship with God. Let’s look at the life of Paul and see how he and the tree are alike.

The first place we find Paul (Saul) is holding the coats of those killing Stephen (Acts 7:58). Saul does not appear to be a significant player in this scene of church persecution. He looks to be like one of the kids on the playground that cheers the bully on. As you continue to read the book of Acts, you see that Saul was on a mission, a mission against the Father and His church. The church was scattered because of persecution. BUT the church continued to grow. When you see Saul again, he is on the road to Damascus. The sole purpose of this trip was to find early Christians and throw them into prison (Acts 9:1-2). Something happens to Saul on this road. A change. This change affected his life, the life of the early church and our lives today. Saul became a follower of Christ! The man who lived to persecute those that followed Jesus now lived a life worthy to be persecuted for Him. During this time of transition, Paul struggled. The Jews were angry with him for flipping and most Christians were afraid of him (Acts 9:19-30). Just like the tree at our ranch, Paul had things in his past that still haunted him, still caused him pain. He had to decide to grow in the Lord, or let the past destroy him. He chose to grow.

Even though he became a Christian, his life did not automatically become easy. God does not promise us that. Paul suffered even more for the sake of Christ. He was rejected (Acts 9:23, Acts 14:19, Acts 21:31), shipwrecked (Acts 27:27-44), beaten and put in prison (Acts 16:16-40). His pain did not stop because he became a Christian, but he chose to push through the struggles and grow. Luke wrote in Acts 13:2 that while the church in Antioch was praying, the Holy Spirit set aside Barnabas and Saul (Paul) to a special work. As you follow Paul’s missionary journeys, he goes from synagogue to synagogue to teach those that were not believers in Jesus Christ. He debated those that were false teachers. He worshipped while he was in chains. He stood before a mob that wanted to kill him and proclaimed there is only one God. Paul grew stronger in the Lord in spite of what was happening in his new life.

How was Paul able to do this? It had to be his personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. He submitted his entire life….all of it….his desires, wants and fears to them. I have no way to prove this, but because of Paul’s knowledge of the Old Testament, I think the scripture in Jeremiah 17:7-8 had to be written on his heart. “But blessed is the one who is in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Just like our tree, Paul had to go deep to make it through a life that had regrets and persecution. Since I started writing this devotional, we have had another large storm at our ranch. We had a great rain (which was needed desperately) and high winds. We lost 3 trees, one redbud that was diseased, one live oak and one pecan tree. The live oak and pecan tree looked healthy. But their root system was shallow. Their looks were deceiving. Again the old, ravaged pecan tree speaks. Its roots are deep. It bears good fruit (great pecans actually) in spite of its past or the storms that it faces daily. As it talks to me, I hear it say, “Cherie, how deep are your roots? Can you withstand life’s storms? Do you let your past define you, or do you use your past to reach those that are seeking the Father?”

Early in this devotional, I referenced a group of street girls that I spoke to. A year ago, I was able to talk to them at length of the value they had in Jesus, the life that he can give them. One year later I had returned for a VERY BRIEF visit. I was amazed at what I saw. I was amazed at what the leaders of the street ministry said about these girls and the change that had taken place in their lives. They now truly knew Christ and had a relationship with him. Their eyes were full of life. Their future was filled with hope all because they learned where to plant the roots of their life.

Be blessed.