Something from the dead

This tree caught my attention initially because of its size.  It towers above my head and the branches slightly overhang the dirt road.  It is also dead, yet has stood through the very destructive spring storms when other alive trees have fallen.  As I looked closer at this dead, towering tree I saw something else.

 

 

At the very center of this tree grows a cactus, a completely different plant coming from what is now dead.

What came to mind was...

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--

it is by grace you have been saved" Eph. 2:4-5.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

 the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Cor. 5:18.

Everyone has sinned and because of our sin, we are spiritually dead.  We have no way of giving life to ourselves because we have no way to cleanse ourselves from the sin which has killed us.  There is only one way to become alive, a new creation, and that is through believing in Jesus: believing he is God's Son, that He lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross to pay the penalty for each and every one of our sins, and that he rose from the dead three days later.  Call upon him for the forgiveness of your sins, and be made alive by his forgiveness and grace.  Become a new creation.