This tree, well now it's a dead tree, has been taunting me for weeks. I drive by it almost every day, and each time it's as if screams, "Take a picture of me! I have a word to speak!" Every time I'm reminded to capture it, I don't have my camera in the car. It's Springtime, and the chainsaws are screaming, so I've been in a panic thinking that someone would cut the tree down before I could take a picture.
The tree is totally dead. Some sort of root has trailed up the trunk and squeezed, inch by inch, bit by bit, the life that once lived in this tree. Just like this tree, bitterness is a deadly root that can take hold of our lives and inch by inch, bit by bit, squeeze the life out of us and out of those we are embittered toward.
I have seen marriages suffocated because of bitterness. I have watched churches disintegrate because of bitterness. I have seen friendships vanish because a root of bitterness has taken hold.
"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice." (Ephesians 4:31)
Is bitterness a root that is squeezing the life out of you?
