Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23

Most of the trees around our house were here when we built our home nearly 52 years ago. Some were already mature while others were young saplings just starting life. I love trees. I don’t exactly know why they hold such a dear place in my heart. These trees we have lived beneath all these years seem like good friends somehow. They have given shade. Created havoc with falling limbs. Shed leaves I have used to mulch gardens and flower beds. Faithful friends.

I’ve been watching a change in one of the sweet gum trees which, by the way, are not my favorite trees. Those sweet gum balls are the worst kind of nuisance. But the redeeming quality is the leaves. They are star-pointed beauties that turn into flaming yellow here. Some days in fall the trees look as if a light has been turned on…they almost glow. So I must forgive the sweet gum balls.

Imagine how I felt when one of the oldest and largest trees had bark that was beginning to “pop out” and split apart. The tree doesn’t appear stressed. It stands straight and tall. There are no dead limbs. It doesn’t appear to be dying…but it most certainly is.

I had my grandson Elijah look at it with me. We couldn’t see disease but when we peeled off the bark that had popped out, there it was. Carpenter ants had invaded. Set up a colony. They are killing the tree from the inside out. I walk by that tree every day going to feed the donkey and goats. I never saw it. Death was concealing itself. 

I need to have that tree taken down. I hate to cut down a tree. But its death is certain. As it continues to die and become unstable, it poses a threat to us, our family, and our pets. Breaks my heart.

I think we can be like that tree. 

In this fallen world we live in there are many things that come against us. We are special targets if we profess Christ. We can be exposed to evil in everyday living. Think nothing about it, yet a seed gets planted that can grow large enough, be malignant enough to kill or incapacitate us. I think we recognize the “big stuff”. It’s the small things like those carpenter ants that move in, take up residence and become so large in us that drastic measures are needed. And sometimes…

Maybe I write too much about guarding our hearts. I can only write what Abba keeps showing me. And maybe in these days that have been so very hard…guarding our hearts…becomes more important than ever.