Growing Deep
One of my favorite things to do is take walks. You’ve probably noticed that I talk about walking a lot. It helps me clear my brain and focus. I also spend a lot of time in prayer on my walks because the walking helps me focus without fiddling. The woods are great but sometimes they’re too buggy so I love a good walk down by the river. There was a bad storm the other day – the rain was almost blowing sideways because the wind was so strong. It was short lived and I had already had a walk that morning so I didn’t think much of it. But today, when I went to take my brain-clearing stroll by the water, I came upon a huge tree that had been toppled across the path. I sidestepped the cones to get a closer look at the damage.
So Close…
The first thing that surprised me was that the tree was so close to the water. It should have been plenty strong enough to withstand the wind. But, as I powered on and pondered, I noticed something. While there were broken branches scattered everywhere – this was the only full tree down on the route I was taking. There were other trees reasonably close to the water, but none as close as this one which was right up against the rocky shoreline.
On my return trip, I looked again at the bottom of the tree. I noticed that there were still roots hanging onto the ground and they were spread wide. But, I also noticed that of such a large tree the roots directly under it were not deep. Nothing was anchoring it to the ground but the width. But it’s so close to the water? I thought, Why wouldn’t the roots be deeper? Then it hit me, it was too close to the water. Because the tree hadn’t had to work for the water, it was able to lay down superficial roots to get all the nourishment it needed for a long time. But, when the storm got bad, it didn’t have the depth it needed to hold on when things got rough.
Deep Enough?
That made me think about my own spiritual life – What did my roots look like? Growing up in a home where my mother was a Christian and where we prayed and read the Bible, it was sometimes easy to rely on her faith to get me through. I would ask her to pray because I knew her roots were deeper. She would spend hours on her knees praying and reading her bible every morning. While I did some bible study, prayed on my own, and memorized bible verses, it wasn’t until my whole world shook with the loss of my mother that I had to dig deep enough to hold on through that storm.
I have had many ups and downs, deep and superficial times in my relationship with God. The tree was a good reminder to dig and get deep into the word so that I would not be toppled in the storms of life.
Be blessed and keep thriving!