Trees and faith provide an excellent lens for life.
There’s the obvious: trees stand tall, but they’re vulnerable to fire, storms, and insects.
But their very nature, they way trees grow, can be an analogy for the life of faith.
Roots: for trees and faith
The life of a tree is found in it’s roots.
Many varieties of a well-tended tree soaked in nutrients, sink roots deep into the ground.
There, the tree roots spread and grow. Some trees are larger–more wide spread–under the ground than over the ground.
The depth of the roots enables a tree to stand through all the forces nature sends: winds, floods, cars, children on bikes.
The deeper the roots, the harder it is to knock down a tree.
Faith element
So it is with faith.
Sinking the roots of our faith and beliefs deep into our souls enables us to withstand all the horrors life–and Satan–not to mention loved ones and friends, throw at us.
The more time we spend nurturing our faith: through worship, reading the Bible, praying, listening to God, the stronger we’ll remain.
Jesus, of course, talks about vines, not trees, but the same truth remains.
We need to be like branches (above ground roots!), connected to the vine (God), to be nourished and flourish.
Sure, we could be shallow-rooted in our faith, but that never works well for the long haul (See the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15).
Community (a grove of trees) for help and nourishment
Some trees are shallow rooted–like the majestic redwoods.
A walk through the redwoods with a ranger friend revealed surprising information that parallels the life of trees and faith.
A redwood belongs in a community, a grove, of other redwoods to flourish.
The roots grow wide underground, grabbing hold and mixing with one another as they establish themselves.
Redwoods are shallow-rooted trees. The roots spread wide across the forest floor.
That helps keep them upright in their grove but also enables them to get water if they’re growing far from a source.
Standing together in a foggy area, they share moisture through their needles and those intertwining roots.
Faith
This is the same reason churches are important to and individual’s faith.
We need each other.
Hebrews 10:23-25 explains it this way:
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Nourishment, encouragement, holding each other up, those are only a few reasons.
Newspring Church provided four. Our faith, like trees, needs help weathering storms. It needs others to share the fruit of the spirit. We need each other, in a grove, to stand before the lashes of nature, and the sadness of the heart.
Sure, we can go it alone in our faith.
But it’s a lot more fun to be with others like us–if only to provide shade (“I’ll help you”), words (the Bible), food (“how about a potluck?”), the water of life (Jesus) and the joy of intertwining branches (“Let’s do life together!”).
One more thing!
What comes from first the flowers, then the fruit of a tree?
Or from your faith?
Food.
Joy.
Companionship.
Growth.
Looks like a circle of life to me! 🙂
For more about trees and faith, see Dr. Matthew Sleeth’s fine book Reforesting Faith: What Trees Teach Us about the Nature of God and His Love for Us.
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