Even though it doesn’t look like it at first, this really does pertain to Holy Week

The first family that owned our house did lots of great things with it. As a result, we have 20 trees and nearly that many shrubs. During the past few days, I’ve started inspecting how some of them have fared through the drought and the blizzard. The results are decidedly mixed.

We have two spruce trees. One looks terrific. The other looks good until about two-thirds of the way up, when it suddenly starts bowing (alarmingly enough, it bows roughly toward Mecca). We have three forsythias. One was smashed by the snow, but is overloaded with blossoms. Another is perfectly shaped, yet with only a few leaves and no blossoms. The third is a mass of unruly stalks with a few blossoms. The leaves on the maples and the linden are coming out so quickly you can nearly see them unfurling as you watch. The four walnut trees look just as dead as they did in February. Leaves and buds are festooning the lilacs while other shrubs show no outer sign of life. All four lodgepole pines have dangling shattered limbs – on a pair of them, it’s the top of the tree that’s been displaced.

So it is with my soul. In some areas, I look to be doing relatively well. In others, I am plainly broken, like a shattered tree limb. Some of my thoughts, words and actions are indistinguishable from someone who is completely dead in sin.

May God in His infinite mercy bring about new life in all of my life, especially those areas where I have clung to sin, while preserving those areas where there are flickers of life.