Reconciliation to God Through the Cross

A Tale of Two Trees

A Tale of Two Trees

Conflicts escalate to broken relationships when neither party will bear the cost of being wronged and seek reconciliation.

A number of years ago, the Chicago Tribune Magazine told the story of two neighbors whose relationship soured over, believe it or not, dog dirt. The Palmer family moved into the Chicago neighborhood and became good friends with their neighbor until one day when Palmer's kids started stepping in dog droppings in their yard. Since they didn't have a dog, and the neighbor had two poodles, Palmer was sure they were the culprits. The neighbor took exception to the suggestion that his fine dogs would do such a thing, and soon the relationship between them turned messy - literally - as both parties heaved droppings back and forth, exchanged angry words and erected signs.

Eventually the dogs disappeared, but the hurts remained. One day the former dog owner, still hostile about the dog caper, wrote a note to his neighbor suggesting that the dead elm tree that stood on the lot line between them should be cut down and the costs split between them. But Palmer didn't like the idea of splitting the costs, so he ignored the letter. A few months later, he awoke to the sound of a chain saw and watched in amazement as the dead tree was sawn vertically in half, and his neighbor's half was removed while his was left standing. Just to spite him, Palmer left his half standing for two more years, before having it removed - a dead reminder of a broken relationship.

There is another tree in history that stands as a reminder, not of a broken relationship, but of a healed one. It is the tree upon which God sacrificed His Son in order to make peace with His enemies. Unlike the perceived minor offenses of these Chicago neighbors, God the Creator suffered the wrongs of an entire world whose offenses were worthy of eternal punishment. Yet rather than escalating the conflict by returning their wrongs on their own heads or by demanding that mankind bear the cost of their wrongs, God chose to bear the cost Himself through the death of His Son. In so doing, He "reconciled us to Himself through Christ ... and has committed to us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

To this very day, that "tree" is the symbol of hope instead of hostility, and of reconciled relationships instead of ruined ones. CrossWorld missionaries see this symbol of reconciliation at work in exhilarating ways. In Quebec this summer, as the result of a 5-day-club, one young boy was reconciled to his heavenly Father. In Asia, a whole family was reconciled when the new-found faith of one young woman so impacted her parents, both retired professors, that they too embraced the faith. In Senegal, 19 former enemies of the cross were recently baptized into the family of God. Yet millions more still await the good news that reconciliation with their Father is even possible.

Ernest Hemingway tells the story of a Spanish father who decides to reconcile with his son who had run away to Madrid. Now remorseful, the father takes out this ad in the El Liberal newspaper: "PACO MEET ME AT HOTEL MONTANA NOON TUESDAY ALL IS FORGIVEN PAPA." Paco is a common name in Spain, and when the father goes to the square, he finds eight hundred young men named Paco waiting for their fathers.

Our heavenly Father has borne the cost of being wronged and has published the good news inviting all the "Pacos" of the world to be reconciled to Him through the blood of the cross. It's a tree like no other, turning countless millions of enemies into friends.