There is a tree next to a portage that many people may not notice. It is a cedar that I assume was blown down by a storm. Not far from it is another tree that does get noticed, a strong cedar that bears the sign of many hands, packs, and canoes that have rested against it. The tall standing cedar right on the shore is an impressive sentinel, it has stood there to welcome generations of travelers entering the canoe waters; but it was the sister tree laying down against the shore line shrubs that held my thoughts. Her roots stood five feet tall in a virtual solid mat of tangled wood. Imbedded in her roots is a large boulder. The shoreline exposed by her fall had new growth of lichens and creepers over the rocks and boulders where she once stood tall, giving evidence that the cedar blew down years ago.
That tree is in my mind today as I prepare for worship this weekend. In our appointed Psalm for October 25 the image of trees features strongly. Psalm 1 describes a person as flourishing who is rooted in the Word of God and striving to follow the way of God. “They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; everything they do shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3) There are many other passages from Proverbs to Paul’s letters that use this image of being rooted in God. That image is there to encourage us to sink roots in that which gives life. By sinking roots in God we have something to hold onto and the ability to endure. The tone of the psalm has the feeling of happiness and deep satisfaction from finding the good and living by it. And in the psalm the image of a tree standing tall full and green is held up over against an image of impermanent chaff that blows away in the wind. The choice of being a rooted tree or chaff is more than obvious. In God’s Word and in God’s spirit we find a strength and permanence that provides the faithful with the possibility of being “happy,” which is the first word in Psalm 1, “Happy are they….”
And that brings me back to that fallen cedar. Everyone experiences storms in life. That is so common that the promise of happiness in Psalm 1 might sound hollow or even untrue. Even those who sink their roots in God’s reality get hit hard by life. Each and every one of us can name storms of loss or grief. Currently storms and crises of every kind wear people down. Some days it is hard to smile. The day I saw that boulder stuck in the roots of the fallen cedar I went closer to check the size of it out of curiosity. Then with my hands on those impressive roots I noticed all the branches growing straight and tall from the prone tree truck. She wasn’t dead; no, some of her roots still held, she drew moisture and nourishment from the shoreline, and she flourished. Some of her roots held; and that was enough. Each branch looked like a new cedar raising their own green branches in a happy hallelujah. Everyone experiences storms in life but that doesn’t mean that our roots don’t hold. That tree provided me with a fuller metaphor of being rooted in God. It looked like a tree knocked down and dead. But I was mistaken. That tree told me a truth: we need our roots precisely because there are storms. Having faith does not mean we get to avoid the difficulty, complexity, and pain of living; but faith provides the endurance until joy is restored.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Reverend Mark Ditmanson of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Grand Marais.
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