I was out working in the yard last week and my next-door neighbor informed me that he was going to have a couple of hardwoods cut down. Looking at my very small pile of firewood for the winter, I saw the opportunity and convinced him that we should cut them up for firewood.

A few days later, the trees were down and cut into 18” sections, ready for two incompetent lumberjacks to set about our mission. A flat tire, a YouTube video, and two trips to a local hardware store later- we had a hydraulic wood splitter on site, and we were in business.

As we pulled the lever to split the wood, I realized both these trees had a story to tell. What looked like a straight, healthy tree, yielded logs that had hidden knots, blemishes, and in some cases infestations. In some cases, logs that showed outside knots, actually cut cleanly and made fine firewood that will burn a beautiful fire. Some of the wood was so nice that it was set aside for another friend of mine to mill it into wooden bowls. My neighbor and I guessed at the trees’ ages by trying to count the rings on the cut wood’s transection. Some rings were narrow and some were wide showing each season of unique growth. It is interesting to me that you can get some insight into the tree’s life when you take the opportunity to look inside.

As I thought about the trees, I thought about all of us. We want to project that we have it all together, but inside we have scars and blemishes of current and past pain. We want to hide those things from others and many times from ourselves. God, on the other hand, knows everything about us and loves us completely. In Psalm 139, David wrote about God’s total knowledge of who we are both inside and out. Some of these verses are below:

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

We also have things “on the outside” – things people know about us, or can see, that we don’t like. While we may regret them at first, we now see God has used these things to shape us into something beautiful and for His glory to shine. Romans 8:28 promises, “We know all things work together for our good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.” Jesus’ half-brother James reminds us in James 1:2-4 to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

So we ought to allow God to do His wonderful cleansing audit of our insides – confessing where we fall short and releasing to Him the things that we are ashamed of that hinder us from coming to Him. Celebrate the internal and external scars as they are reminders of God’s faithfulness to restore us and move us closer to being “mature and complete, not lacking anything.”