July 3rd

I'm sitting outside looking at this tree in our backyard.  When we moved in I thought about the danger of it falling on the house every day. During every storm or windy day I would worry and I would pray for protection. Our neighborhood is elevated and the storms seem very severe at times, unlike anywhere I've ever lived before. One day about a year after we moved in, I was sitting in my bed. The night before it had stormed but on this night it was completely still.. not even a breeze. The windows in the bedroom are facing the backyard, about 15 feet from this tree. As I sat reading, I suddenly heard a loud crash. I went running outside to look and discovered that it was a branch from that tree. It must have broken the night before in the storm and had fallen suddenly next to our bedroom window. I knew in that moment that the Lord had answered my prayers and protected us. It changed the way I prayed over the tree because I knew God would protect us. I experienced it. So I continued to pray with each storm, each windy day with a new confidence in my Creator and His control over every branch, every gust of wind. One day, a large wood pecker decided to make this tree his home. It pecked and pecked day after day after day. From early in the morning until late Into the evening, making what I assume was a home for a family of its own to nest in. It chose this tree as its safe place and worked and worked to build something. I thought very little of it other than the noise it made all day long and my memories of the cartoon woody the wood pecker. We watched as it burrowed deeper and deeper into the tree. It would leave for a bit and then return and peck away. One day there was a storm like no other. Tornado force winds, record breaking winds in fact and I was afraid, so I prayed. Lord protect this house, protect us from the stom. And wouldn't you know it, the tree fell that night.   I went outside to look and to my amazement, the very spot the wood pecker had built its home was the spot the tree split. The wood pecker had dug so deep into the tree that it did the work we couldn't do. It caused a weak spot in just the right place that the tree broke in half and fell back in the exact opposite direction of the house. Directly away from everything and anything it could have damaged. Landing against a very large tree able to catch its force and stop it from knocking down other smaller trees or causing any further destruction. I sit here now and remember. God hears our prayers. He is working in our behalf. And sometimes He answers prayers in ways we can't even see until after the fact, that we can't understand until after the storm. Sometimes it looks in the natural like a tree and a wood pecker but it's actually God's protection all along.