Remember the story of the guy who invited a friend over for dinner one night? When the two arrived at the home of the first, he walked over to a tree in his front yard and made like he was putting something on the tree. His friend asked what he was doing and the man told him that this was his Trouble Tree. No matter how bad things were at work, he came home and hung his troubles on the Trouble Tree so he wouldn’t carry them in to his family.

Today I had a crappy day at work. Well, not really, really REALLY crappy but I could have done without the last two or three of hours. In a nutshell, I was made to feel like I wasn’t doing my job. I will leave it at that. As I was driving home, I thought about planting a tree in the front yard so I could have a trouble tree. Now, cast your mind back a few weeks.

Richard painted a clear plastic cross in Sunday School and attached some “dangly bits” on it, wind-chimey kind of things. Richard put some string through the hole in the top so I could hang it from my rear view mirror in the van. I didn’t really like it at first. It reflected the sun when I didn’t need it to; I thought it might be a distraction while driving. But then today I suddenly thought “THAT’S MY TROUBLE TREE!!”

We sometimes refer to Christ’s crucifixion as Him being hung on a tree. The reason He was hung on the cross is because of all the trouble I have caused, am causing and will cause. Jesus invites us to take up His yoke because it is light, and while we are doing that we need to lay our burdens at the foot of the cross. Our troubles are nothing that God cannot handle or help us through. But God cares about our burdens. They are important to Him because they are important to us.

So I looked at that cross in my van, the ultimate symbol of love, forgiveness and mercy and told God that I was putting all that had happened on that cross. And God said, alright, leave it with Me. There they are; my troubles on Christ’s Trouble Tree.