Old Man

I've been walking past this place nearly every morning for months now.  The first time I saw this dual-nature shrub, I did a double take.  What happened here? As I passed it again and again, I found that I was frequently musing on the Biblical teaching of the old man versus the new man.  'Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.  The old things passed away, behold new things have come.  Here grows a beautiful illustration of that spiritual truth.  The old things have passed away; dead, but still connected somehow until we go on to glory.   The new stuff is green and full of life.





When you approach these shrubs from a certain angle, it looks for all the world as if the middle one is completely dead and yet as you continue on, you are surprised by joy.  When I look at myself, at my inner self, I'm afraid that too often I see only the old man, the old dead growth instead of seeing what is growing up alongside it in beauty.

Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, 

but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:11