A GREAT FALL

I took what I like to call a prayer hike today. The weather is absolutely beautiful! We have acres of woods behind our house and I like to go in there and follow the deer paths and talk to God and listen and explore His creation as I do. I was just in those woods last week hunting deer sheds (the antlers that the bucks lose in early Spring), but this week something was drastically different. Just a few hundred yards into the woods I noticed that it looked like a tornado had touched down in one spot and lifted back up, leaving downed trees and broken branches in it's wake. I had not remembered any big storms coming through, so I decided to investigate further, climbing over huge tree trunks, weaving in and out of tangled branches. . . I am such an explorer at heart! I loved every minute of it! But as I investigated I came to the origin of all of this destruction. One HUGE tree had fallen. As it fell it took out other trees in it's path, big and small. Large branches were literally ripped from some of those trees that managed to stay standing. And as the smaller trees fell, they took out even smaller trees, and ripped branches from other trees on their way down. As I surveyed the destruction I could see the pattern of the falling trees and how each one affected another, and how it all went back to the huge tree that fell first. I knew we had no wind storms recently that would cause that tree to fall, so I went to where it had come out of the ground. It looked as if the roots had weakened and lost their grip. The whole root system that was still intact was above the ground and laying sideways with the tree. Then I looked at the base of the tree. You could see inside the trunk of this tree because the inside of it was hollow. Rotted away. The tree was weak, even though when it was standing it looked strong and towered over the other trees majestically. I thought of a message my Pastor had shared with me about trees, and then his message last week about those who build on the rock and those who build on the sand.
Matthew 7:²⁴ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: ²⁵ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
²⁶ “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Those were the words I heard when I looked at the tree. . ."And GREAT was it's fall". I had never thought about this at the time of my Pastor's preaching of this message, because I was busy setting things right in my own heart, but when we fall. . . we have the capacity to be taking out many others as we go, and injuring even more! The fall is GREAT because there is so much death and destruction that reaches far beyond just ourselves. It reaches our families, our friends, anyone that God uses us to minister to as we walk out our destiny in Him. It can destroy and kill another person's relationship with God! Let's all be sure we are building on the Rock, Who is Jesus Christ!! Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else!!