Since March, when we moved into our home and I got obsessed with planting things, I’ve taken a keen interest in what kind of flowers, shrubs and trees grow around here. There are some I’m immediately drawn to, some I completely reject and some I don’t even notice. Crepe myrtle trees fall into that last category, being about the most unremarkable tree out there. Well, that’s what I thought until summer heated up and hundreds of these trees around our city shot out enormously long branches loaded with vibrant flowers that took my breath away. It was nothing short of glorious. As it turns out, we even have two in our front yard which we were going to remove due to their nondescript nature (as John put it, “they don’t really add anything, do they?”) until – very late in the season – one began to bloom and I realized we got to be part of this remarkable display.
On my walk this morning, I passed by one of these trees, still full of blooms and a picture quickly formed in my mind. What if we, as believers, are like these trees? Maybe our daily lives look ordinary and there’s not too much to make us stand out from the rest; nothing that makes what we have seem desirable. But then – suddenly – when life heats up and hard times come, we send stunning, flower-laden shoots out into the sky that can’t help but be noticed by nonbelievers. Maybe they might even want what we have. Not because we are shouting Jesus at them or telling them who they should be or how they should live, but because Jesus is beautiful and wondrous and we get to display Him. It’s not something we even have to try hard to do. It’s in our new-creation DNA and is simply a yielded response as a branch to the life of the vine. If just one of our lives displays that kind of beauty, it is sure to be noticed. But what if hundreds and thousands and millions of us reflected His glory in the heat of life? It truly takes my breath away even to think of it.
Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. John 15:5
where waves grow sweet 
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