For There is Hope for a Tree - September 2
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 38; PM Psalm 119:25-48; Job 12:1,14:1-22; Acts 12:18-25; John 8:47-59
Today’s Reflection
For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. –Job 14:7-9
Have you ever had a plant that stopped thriving, and eventually you look at it in its pot or its place in the ground and you think to yourself, this plant’s time is done? Each year, there are usually one or two plants on our porch that look like they have no life left in them. But then, when I go over to take a closer look, there is still the tiniest green shoot or a section of stem that still has some life left in it. At that point, what needs to be done is to cut off all the dead stems and leaves—and sometimes, that leaves very little plant left.
Sometimes, when examining one of these struggling plants, I wonder: Is this plant really worth saving? But then, if I prune the plant in time, a bit more new growth begins to come out of those tiny green remnants. Within just a few weeks’ time, lo and behold we can have what looks like a whole new plant that is growing and flourishing where just a short time before it seemed ready to be discarded altogether.
Or, have you ever observed how in a place where there has been a forest fire, how quickly the signs of new growth begin to emerge from the charred landscape? In some woodlands, like the longleaf pine forests that flourish where I am from in Florida, naturally occurring wildfires are good for the ecosystem. The soil can be enriched by the ashes, and the heat of the fire can help new seeds to be released from their cones and begin to grow.
Something you may have seen growing on live oak trees here in Alabama, and elsewhere in the Southeast, are resurrection ferns. When we’ve been going through a dry spell, you can look up and see these brown, withered looking ferns growing on the branches of the oak trees. But then, as soon as a rainstorm comes through, you can look up at that same tree and see those very same resurrection ferns are suddenly looking very lush and green once again. They are called resurrection ferns because they appear to be dead, but then as soon as they are touched by raindrops, they begin to unfurl again, full of life.
All these observations from nature keep pointing us back toward Christ and his resurrection—and today’s passage from Job foreshadows this. We are reminded by these instances of resurrection in nature of the resurrection we experience in our own lives. We go through periods of not taking care of ourselves so well—or perhaps we are feeling not so cared for as we would like to be by others in our lives. And so, we can find ourselves beginning to feel like we are drying out and withering up. There are no signs of new growth in us.
But then, before all is lost, something helps us begin to flourish once more. We feel a bit of refreshing water start to trickle down through the soil we’re planted in, and when it reaches our roots, we begin to grow again. Like the plant we neglected to take care of for too long, the pine forest after the fire, or the resurrection fern after a rain, it doesn’t take much water and nutrients to begin to turn things around for us. A little water at just the right moment helps the cycle of life to begin unfolding again—in the nature that surrounds us, and in our own lives.
And all this points us back toward Christ—his life, death, and resurrection giving us the hope of experiencing resurrection in our own lives, and in the lives of those we encounter along our way.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
What does a dry period in life look and feel like for you?
Have you noticed any patterns of when you tend to experience these dry periods in your life?
Have you noticed what changes, small or large, allow you to begin to experience flourishing and new growth again?
Daily Challenge
Reflect on an aspect of your life that seems at the moment to be withering in some way. Think of one small thing you could change in your daily pattern of life that could bring new life back to this struggling area.
Commit to doing this one small thing each day for the rest of the week to see what happens.