"As long as the earth remains, there will springtime and harvest, cold and
heat, winter and summer, day and night."
Genesis 8:22 (NLT)

The sun is shining brightly. Soft, gentle winds are blowing through the trees. Tulips are popping out in brilliant reds and yellows.

It is a lovely world we live in!

I drive down a street near our house where there are dozens of pear trees all adorned in pure white blooms. I gasp each time. The beauty is almost more than the eye can behold.

Three months ago, I thought I would never again round that corner and see millions of white pear blossoms.

For you see, the winter that we experienced was much fiercer than normal in our part of the country.

An ice storm of enormous proportions covered us completely for several days. The electricity was off and the wires came down. Trees that had stood the weather of time began to lose their limbs. Freezing rain turned to several inches of ice coating the branches. They shook and shimmered as if the load was too much to bear.

One by one they began to fall. In a few hours it looked as if a tornado had devastated our city. Limbs were strewn about in every conceivable way. It was not a pretty sight.

Day four of the winter storm came and the weather warmed up suddenly. Soon the ice had melted. Left in its place were stacks of broken limbs. Trees had been completely reshaped from the pruning of the ice storm. Some looked as if death was inevitable.

Then before we knew it, spring was here. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping. New life abounded all around us. And there for all the world to see in their resplendent glory were those broken down, pruned, reshaped pear trees. How magnificent they stood in their glorious new life. No longer broken, bent and twisted. But pruned and glowing with millions of white blooms. More beautiful than I ever remembered seeing them before the huge storm.

I was reminded of how God takes weary human beings, seemingly broken beyond repair from sin and difficulties in their earthly lives and makes them new again. How he remolds the most harsh trials and makes them shine for His glory. Much like those gorgeous pear trees. Living holier and more fruitful lives for Him.

Once again, it becomes a lovely world we live in!

Melva Cooper, Copyright 2005
Used with permission.