I grew up in fire country. 

There’s a hill that I drove around every week on my way to church. Fire ravaged this hill one summer, leaving it charred and dead. Yet in the midst of it, something wonderful happened. A tree appeared, green and lush, a thing of beauty surrounded by charcoal landscape. It stood alone, the only green and living thing amidst a landscape that had been killed by the heat of the fire.

We can each be that tree. God calls us to show His light and life, to be a thing of beauty in a world that has been devastated by the effects of sin. In the midst of the charred remains of shattered lives and broken families, in the midst of violence and chaos and pain, in the midst of injustice and apathy, in the midst of a society that neither knows what’s right nor cares about truth, we can be that green tree, standing out against the dark landscape surrounding us. 

So how can you be that green tree? By not being afraid to stand out. If our lives look different – and they should – we can draw people’s attention and point them to the giver of all life.

Psalm 1:1-3: “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.”