Old Wounds, New Growth
Almost a year and a half ago, an ice storm hit my area. The power was out in our neighborhood for days, and some of our near neighbors went without power for over a week. Worse than that, as the ice began to melt, large branches and entire trees began to splinter and fall, causing damage to fences, cars, and homes across the area.
Our own house had a near miss as the top of one of our cedars broke off, falling towards our house. God mercifully spared us: a branch from another tree “happened” to be in just the right place to deflect the impact away from the house.
As the days of cracks, clatters, and sickening thuds came to an end, we began to venture out to survey the damage. To the inhabitants of a region not prone to hurricanes or tornados, the desolation was acute. Our tree-filled neighborhood reminded me of a war zone. Everywhere we looked, we could see some sort of storm damage.
Yet, as I strolled through my neighborhood early this spring, I noticed something.
While the damage to buildings and landscapes has long since been repaired, the trees have still born the slowly-scarring wounds of that dreadful week. Now, as I walked past trees that had been decimated by the weight of ice and rain, I saw new growth springing up out of those old wounds.
That’s the way it is with us. The storms of life sweep through, shattering relationships, decimating hopes and dreams, or bringing an abrupt and painful end to a chapter of our lives, and we are left standing wounded, wondering if we will ever heal.
We feel the brokenness of sin, we feel the sting of betrayal or death, and we mourn. Yet, even as we mourn, God is beginning His healing work, a work that will not only bring healing, but will cause new growth to spring from the wounds caused by sin’s brokenness.
Although God never desires man to sin, He knows it will happen, and in His goodness and mercy, He has already made plans for your specific pain to be turned into a work of new growth in Him.
This is the joyous reality of the sovereignty of God. This is the outworking of Romans 8:28, that God will use the hard things He allows in our lives for our good.
He will use the storm to make us stronger, to grow our roots deeper in the truths of His Word. He will turn our old wounds into new growth, bringing beauty to the scars caused by sin and sorrow.
In Isaiah 61, part of what the Messiah is promised to do is,
“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” (v.3)
Notice what happens once God has brought beauty, joy, and praise out of their desolation and planted them like trees, giving them stability and strength:
“And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.” (v. 4)
There’s more after that, but just think: God’s plan for the desolation of His people is to build, to repair, to restore. That’s what God desires to do with the “old wastes,” the desolate places of our hearts and lives.
Israel had justly deserved their desolation: they had ignored warning after warning from the Lord, rejecting one invitation after another to return to Him. Yet, even in their deserved desolation, God’s plan was to restore, to rebuild, and to renew.
Whether your desolation is of your own or another’s making, whether it came about because of your own choices, or matters beyond your control, God is still there.
He still wants you to turn to Him in your anguish, to cry your tears before Him, and to wait, trusting Him to heal, to comfort, and to bring new growth where old wounds have been.