It also brings up great memories from my childhood. I remember sitting in a hammock at our family's lake house watching the wind come through the trees. There are also memories of hiking through the forest with my Grandaddy in East Texas looking at everything hidden in the darkened woods.
I lie on the couch at night and as the light reflects off of the snow, I can look at the trees. This morning as I was sitting there looking through the treetops I noticed how windy it looked, but as my gaze lowered it didn't look windy at all. I started to wonder how these trees, which are so, sooo tall, can take such great amounts of wind up top, but when you look at the trunks they don't appear to move at all.
After reading and thinking on it for a bit I began to see some application to my spiritual life and also to my transition here in the North Woods.
It is all dependent on the roots. You know those pesky little things that tear up your foundation and make cracks in your water pipes? Those things that most of the time you can't see? The foundation is in the roots.
What does that look like for me as a believer and disciple of Christ? How can I weather life's storms in a way that though the wind might be blowing all around, I am able to stand firm? Well, the key also lies in our roots.
Our move here has been more difficult than I expected. The loneliness, the loss of the people and things we left behind, the loss of the earthly security we left in Texas...all of takes its toll in ways that I did not expect or anticipate. There have been days here that I have had to just stick one foot in front of the other and take it one step at a time or the fear and loneliness would be paralyzing.
And though there have been times that I have wanted to head back south, I have been able to stand firm...but I can tell you one thing....it was not and never will be by my own strength. So for those who ask "How can you do it"? Well, I can't, but God can and He has. And as I look over the past three months I can see some similarities I have through my roots in Christ with the trees that I watched stand firm in the wind.
1. Know God: This is the most important aspect that has enabled me to stand. I KNOW who I serve. He is mighty and faithful. He is long-suffering yet just. He is compassionate. He is God.
2. Know the Word: I love God's Word. It guides me, it helps me. It is one of the main ways I can get to know God. His Word is my lamp and my light when the days are dark and the nights are long.
3. Know the Church: Did you know that trees have underground root exchanges of water and nutrients with other trees? They even can graft their roots together! This is kinda how I envision the church! We are all different and come with various gifts and abilities, but through Christ our roots are all grafted together and enable us to stand tall and strong through life's storms.
God has used His church in mighty ways to support us after moving here. We have had help obtaining housing, wood, any physical need we have had. Even this morning I had to call on someone to help get my van started! Honestly it seems that every day I am having to ask for help in one way or another. Before moving here that was not something I was comfortable doing, but I seem to be getting better at it!! :)
God's people have helped us by offering help in the form of emotional and spiritual support. There are people who meet me for meals or coffee or just to hang out and I know...I KNOW... that they are busy and have other things to do, but they are stepping in and ministering to me in that way.
God's church has paid attention to the little details of my life. The other day a dear friend showed up with some matching bowls and saucers that go along with a set of plates I found at the thrift store. In December I had that hardest time trying to get our Christmas tree to stand up and one morning two friends showed up, one with a different tree stand, and the other with the knowledge and skill to get it to stand up. Little details, yet HUGE impact and blessing.
We have been blessed in knowing some of our friends here for several years as we met in Wyoming each summer. Those friends have been instrumental in helping us adjust and at this point I feel like they are family. God has also placed new friends in our path that have quickly, supernaturally, become life-long friends.
Paul tells us in Colossians that we need to live a life worth of the Lord by bearing fruit, growing, being strengthened. Having endurance and patience and giving joyful thanksgiving to the Father.
Kinda like my trees...bearing fruit, growing, being strong.... But how is one to have a strong root system like this?
We can having by doing one thing...asking.
Verses 9-14 says "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit give, so that you may live a life worth of the Lord and please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves, in whom we have redemption, and forgiveness of sins."
On my own I can't have the knowledge, wisdom or understanding to strengthen my roots.
On my own I can't develop friendships that quickly become an integral part of my root system.
On my own I can't stand in the day-to-day storms that come.
And I thank God that I don't have to.
All I have to do is to ask.
