We spend most of our
childhood anticipating, desiring and certain of the ultimate value of growing
up. We don’t want to be kids. Despite this all consuming desire to be an adult,
I’m not certain I ever got there.
As evidence of this theory, after my wife and I were married and before we had children, I felt compelled to construct a kite. I bought the lumber and the plastic and constructed an eight foot high kite. I flew it and if I was not such a large guy it would have lifted me off the ground.
Fast forward to today. This
spring I planted some acorns. I gathered them last fall and kept them in a
plastic bag in the refrigerator all winter. I planted them in the spring. When the first acorn sprouted a sapling I was
elated.
I began this endeavor so that I could give each of my grandkids an oak tree to plant and in twenty or thirty years they could look at that tree and recollect that their gramps had given it to them. This was my shot at immortality or at least an extended remembrance of my presence in the life of my grandkids.
I knew nothing of the way an oak tree grew. Leaves emerged from the sprout. Soon after, from the center of the stem, a new set of leaves was born, fresh, new unblemished filled with the splendor of newness.
The thing is - these little child trees were difficult to give away. I grew seven or eight so it was not too difficult. I would still have three or four for myself. Yet, I began to wonder why they intrigued me so. I would visit my trees frequently and experienced a good deal of satisfaction from seeing the extension of the tree trunk, small and thin as it was, coming out of the center of the stem, with new, unblemished leaves, light green to a reddish hue, each fresh - a reminder of the excitement of new life.
On reflection it occurred to
me that my fascination with these saplings had a more transcendent
significance. The new emergence of another layer of growth and new leafs
reminded me of our spiritual growth. Each effort at being a little Christ that
we make is the emergence of new growth. Awareness of our weaknesses and self
concerns is a new growth in the Spirit. It is the emergence of a life in Christ
that produces an unblemished, fresh and new growth. Nature mimics the Spirit.
Praise God!
