A Beautiful Strangling

I have always loved allegories and analogies.  It is art with words that just make sense in my mind and rings true with my heart.  Because of this, I often see examples in my everyday life that cause me to stop and think of the things of God. Today I saw this tree while on a walk with my family.  My first impression was how beautiful it was.  I loved how the vine gracefully wrapped itself around the tree. The two of them combined to form a stately and strong vision.  However, upon closer inspection I saw that in fact the vine was choking the tree.  The tree lacked room to grow, while the vine sucked up all of the nourishment.  The tree would have surely perished except that the caretaker had come along and cut away at the vine.  The vine now dead, had released its grip but remained as a reminder. 

As I took it all in, a picture was created in my mind - one of sin and its affects on our life.  Sin, be it an object, activity or attitude may appear good, beautiful even.  If we allow it to, like the vine, it will wrap itself around our life, choking us - depleting us of our God given purpose.

Pause, and contemplate with me; what may have wrapped around our hearts?  What do we need the Caretaker to come along and cut away in our lives?