A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

Daniel 4:15, “Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth . . .” Max Lucado, in Facing Your Giants, noted: “A sprawling, shade-bearing, eighty-year-old American elm in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a huge tourist attraction. People pose for pictures beneath her. Arborists carefully protect her. She adorns posters and letterhead. The city treasures the tree. She made it through the Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck only yards from her. His malice killed 168 people, wounded 850, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. No one gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped tree. But then she began to bud. Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life rose from an acre of death. People noticed. The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. So they named her the Survivor Tree.” Our Scripture lesson today is a portion of an interpreted dream Daniel relayed to the prideful King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon about the king being temporarily deposed from his throne to suffer a bout of severe mental illness. In the dream, the king was portrayed as a tree. Although the tree was cut down, the stump with its roots remained—indicating that the king would ultimately be restored to his throne, and his sanity would return. As long as the roots remain viable, and are able to access essential nutrients deep in the soil, even a severely damaged tree can spring forth with new life. Perhaps your life has been severely traumatized. Adverse circumstances have stripped away your protective bark, destroyed the graceful branches, and severely splintered what was once a strong, resolute trunk. Yet if you possess a deeply anchored root system, new life can once again spring forth. Every life ultimately experiences adversity. But those who are anchored deeply by their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ can see that which seems to be dead, experience a glorious resurrection; and witness new life spring forth with each new day.