SEEING BEYOND THE TREE LINE

There’s something there…just beyond the tree line.

I feel this way often when I’m in the thick woods of Kentucky.

Whether I’m hiking with my wife up a mountain, or in her grandmother’s back yard…I can’t help but feel the dense green lushness of the foliage pressing around me. The height of the trees consuming my sight, revealing only small slivers of baby blue sky and light from the sun. The sounds of life all around me…birds chirping, insects buzzing, the melody of the leaves as the invisible wind pushes them to song.

The smell of the humid earth, a musty, leafy, combination that makes me think of a cool fall day when I was young. I was at my grandparent’s house with my sister and it started to rain buckets of cool relief. With excitement, we grabbed umbrellas and ran outside. We liked to watch how the rain water traveled down the street next to the curb. We would grab leaves off the tree in the front yard and place them in the small current, pretending it was a race…at least until the leaves moved beyond the perimeter of the yard and out of sight.

In this place my senses are consumed and even at thirty seven years old my imagination kicks into gear.

Yes, there’s something just beyond the tree line. Something exciting. Something I can’t explain.

Could it simply be a new day? A fresh start in the morning that only in that moment feels within reach and feels discoverable?

My heart races at the possibilities. They seem endless and beyond number.

It’s excitement in its truest essence. It’s knowing that somehow there’s a form of light beyond the woods, and when I see it…it will shatter everything I’ve ever known to be true. A beautiful creator…a light-filled world. It’s waiting. He’s waiting. Not just for me…but for everyone.

I close my eyes and remember a dining room table.

The same table that sits in the dining room of my own home now.

But now as I see the table in my mind’s eye…I’m a teenager. I’m sitting at the table surrounded by my parents, sister, and a pastor of a church and his wife. Our heads are bowed and my hands are shaking lightly in my lap. I’m praying a simple prayer, but one that even in that moment is changing my life. My heart is pounding and my skin tingles…I swear there’s some kind of electricity in the air. I hear nothing but the sound of my own voice. I’m believing in a way I never have before.

This moment is salvation. This moment is grace.

A new day…a fresh start…a light-filled world created by my FATHER.

I can finally see where I’m going. Maybe I can help someone else find their way too.

I open my eyes and look at the landscape around me…I smile.

There’s something there…just beyond the tree line.

“Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.”

--Romans 6:5 (MSG)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF3pTitYfq0

There's a secret I must tell Of all the love I've found And it's hidden in my heart The day you tore my world apart

Hallelujah, King forever, friend and Saviour

Jesus' blood never fails me Jesus' blood never fails me Jesus' blood, Jesus' blood

And this secret, it will run To the corners of the earth Where every woman, every son Will carry high their chains undone

Hallelujah, King forever, friend and Saviour

Jesus' blood never fails me Jesus' blood never fails me Jesus' blood never fails me Jesus' blood, Jesus' blood

Sing your songs of freedom Praise the God of heaven Love that never fails me Jesus' blood, Jesus' blood

--Delirious? "Jesus' Blood"