So. . . . nobody has asked me about my profile picture. . .

Your story? The tree tells it's life when it is cut. . It's age it's Shown. Stress years and good years. It's your life(?). Also I have to admit if I use my creative mind it looks like the face of Jesus with the crown of thorns .

Your story involved the cutting of a tree.

This species of tree is called box elder, or ash-leaf maple. I have cut down a number of them at times. They are considered an undesirable, low-utility tree. They are poor for lumber, mediocre for firewood, and mediocre for landscaping. Their wood is usually very bland and ordinary looking. However, something happens to some of the trees where streaks of bright red wood are found in them. Nobody seems to know exactly what causes the redness, but it could be a bacteria introduced due to some weakness or failure of the immune system of the tree. Again, the exact reason is not known. Some of these trees will have none of it, and some will have a little, and some will have a great deal of it. The one in my picture is massively endowed with it.

I am a sawyer by trade-- (although I work several jobs and have done many things for work). I have a little sawmill and I mill lumber out of logs.

What I found about box elder wood is that it is largely undesirable for wood-working--except for when it exhibits the red streaks. Unlike some wood staining, the red streaks in box elder last many years without fading much. The red coloring makes the wood look much more interesting for people looking at the furniture or whatever else is made from it. Woodworkers call this red wood "flame box elder" or "blood box elder." The color and pattern makes an undesirable piece of wood into a desirable one.

I cut the tree in the picture down just a few months ago, shortly before I joined the forum. Every time I see that blood-red wood, I think of the cross our Savior died on. I also think of the sorrows and woes and conflicts and forgiven sin in our lives that make a bloody pattern in our life-- a pattern that in hind-sight is beautiful in that the blood of Jesus saved us from everything. His blood makes an undesirable life desirable. Our beauty is not what is naturally within us, but the grace He has brought into our life.

Without his blood, we are just undesirable wood, tossed on the burnpile. But by His blood, we are a thing of beauty to be showcased in His eternity.

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing that, watchmanjim!