Tree Bark

Ok, someone could probably use this entry as evidence to have me committed. I honestly am feeling a little insane right now.

Its 3 am and I am all hopped-up feeling after going to bed with a cup of Alka Seltzer Plus Cold medicine. I was dreaming of tree bark. Cold medicine messes with me sometimes. 

But yeah, I was dreaming of tree bark. Close up views of different textures of tree bark!! So I googled tree bark and then I'm sitting there looking at a picture of it reading about it and feeling like some weird character from a movie, like when they find that shed with all the papers on the wall in A Beautiful Mind, lol.

But the first line I read is this:

Bark is a tree's natural armor and protects it from external threats.

With this picture:

My immediate thought was of God. That he is my natural armor. That he protects me from external threats. The picture more fully helped me visualize this, in that the inside of the tree is soft and tender and vulnerable, and without the bark protecting it, it would be damaged, beaten, eaten away by all sorts of various things. It would never survive. 

It went on to say that:

Bark also has several physical functions, one is ridding the tree of wastes by absorbing and locking them into its dead cells and resins.

I think of how God gently and gradually draws out my 'impurities'. Wow, all of the 'waste' that has been and is still being drawn out of me over the last 5 years. Anxiety. Depression. Fear. Smoking. Worrying. Drinking. Anger. Outbursts. Insecurity. Etc. Etc. Etc.

He is tough and strong enough to handle ANYthing we throw His way. Anything we need rid of. Anything that is plaguing us, hurting us, holding us back.

And I think of Jesus, and that he 'absorbed' my sins, and the penalty for my sins, through His death on the cross. For me. And you.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And then I read:

It would take a million pictures to cover the full variety of textures found in tree barks.

And it would take a million pictures to cover the ways God protects us. Covers us. Guides us. Aids us. Blesses us. Surrounds us. In different ways for different people.

I am vulnerable. Oftentimes weak. Easily hurt. BUT, with my God, I am protected. He is strong where I am weak. He envelops me. Surrounds me. Protects me. 

Loves me!

And you. : )

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Even through my crazy, cold medicine-induced dreams, he works!

(Wow, I seem to have NO control over the fonts on this thing!)