I do most of my sermon preparation in my study at home. Out the window there are a couple of Ironwood trees that have been there long before our house was built and are now pretty good size. Those two trees have crossed each other (literally). One large branch has grown across another large branch. When the wind blows, they rock and grate against one another. After decades of this grating in the wind, an amazing thing has happened.

Both having their bark repeatedly stripped away, their sap has intermingled one with the other. Each time they begin to scar over, another wind causes them to dig yet deeper into one another. Now, years later, those two independent trees are nestled tightly against one another as if they were hugging. Although they are still independent, you would never know it from their intertwined appearance. They each provide protection for the other in their injury. Broken, they have become one. And they sing a beautiful song of nature when the wind blows.

I think there is a lesson in this for married couples. There comes a point in marriage where we have hurt each other and learned to embrace and heal each other at the same time. Our bark (human facade) has been stripped away and we become vulnerable to one another. That’s when we either destroy or heal one another. This is the healing time. You must hug each other and hold tight to one another.

“Wounds from a friend are better than kisses from an enemy!” (Proverbs 27:6 TLB).