day no. 15,923: the sound of sawing somewhere else

Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen. -- Zechariah 11:2

"When in the forest there is heard the crash of a falling oak, it is a sign that the woodman is abroad, and every tree in the whole company may tremble lest to-morrow the sharp edge of the axe should find it out. We are all like trees marked for the axe, and the fall of one should remind us that for every one, whether great as the cedar, or humble as the fir, the appointed hour is stealing on apace." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

The sound of sawing somewhere else should lead a tree to prepare to be felled. The sight of fallen trees should preach repentance to those still standing. Everyone will one day die and hearing about the death of others should remind us that we are no exception.

Ecclesiastes 7:2

It is better to go to the house of mourning,

than to go to the house of feasting:

for that is the end of all men;

and the living will lay it to his heart.

Do not be a fir tree assuaging your fears by pointing out that the fallen tree was a cedar. The woodsman is no respecter of kinds or types. All trees will come down. Some will be left for last and some will be sought at first, but all will eventually fall. And once they are felled, where they fall is where they will remain and they all fall just the once.

Ecclesiastes 11:3b

If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north,

in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

Fallen trees preach repentance to the forest.

Hebrews 9:27

It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.