From inside of the house I could hear the sound of the wind.

I opened the back door to have a look outside. The wind was very strong and I could hear it whistling through the trees at the bottom of the garden. They were about twenty feet tall and creating a very effective protection against the storm. I had planted them about twenty years ago.

I didn`t realise then how important they were going to be to-day, but could see now, the great advantage of this wind break.

I was standing in a very calm atmosphere at the back door appreciating the work the trees were doing by stopping the wind

As I thought about this it made me consider again a tree planted not twenty years ago but over two thousand years ago.

It was the tree made into a cross on which Jesus died. He took our place, the guilty place and died for us.

Not the tree, but Jesus on the tree, shelters us from the storm of the judgement of God for our sins, when we put our faith in Him as our Saviour.

We can then live in the calm of God`s love, mercy, grace and forgiveness.

The verse of a hymn sums it up nicely.

There rose a keen relentless storm,
It burst on Christ alone;
It marred His visage and His form,

But thus He saved His own.
He bore the grief for our relief
Unaided and alone.
Come to Me Jesus said. Matthew ch. 11 v 28

Yes, come in out of the storm.

Donnie Black