Resilient

At the timberline where the storms strike with the most fury, the sturdiest trees are found.  Hudson Taylor

We live on a corner lot and we have crape myrtles that line the parkway next to our fence.  There are five and they have gotten fairly large over the years.  Several years ago we went out of town for a weekend and when we got home we turned the corner on our street and one of the crape myrtles had been wiped out.  Someone ran up the curb and took out one of our crape myrtles. 

It would have been nice if the perpetrator had left a note on a branch of the victim.  Something like “I am so sorry I took out one of your crape myrtles” or how about “look on the bright side, I missed three of them and only got one” or how about “rest in peace” but I am sad to say no one fessed up to the crime. 

Since whoever hit the tree took it off at the root we were left with a pretty uneven tree line.  We thought about replacing it but my Mom told us the root system was still there so it would come back.  We thought it would take it awhile to grow back and surely it wouldn’t catch up with the rest of our trees. We were wrong.  It grew faster than the other trees and after a couple of years it was the same size as the rest of them. 

Several years after that incident we had another crape myrtle incident.  Someone had stolen a car and parked it on the street next to our crape myrtles.  We live near a main freeway so it was easy to get to our neighborhood and park the car on the dark side of our street.  To hide the evidence they set the car on fire.  So I wake up around 3:00am and walk into the kitchen and there is a glow coming from our backyard.  I open the patio door and flames are shooting 30 feet in the sky and one of my favorite crape myrtles is burning.

We thought the tree would die after that incident, but it didn’t.  It came back the next year and is now the same size as the others. 

This started me thinking about the tragedies and trials that occur in our lives.  We need to be like the crape myrtles.  Resilient.  God gives us the tools to survive and thrive but we need to be resilient.  If we are not resilient we will give up too soon and will not see God’s blessing in the trial.  He also wants us to produce fruit in our lives.  When we become rooted in Christ we will bloom and bear fruit. 

One of the things our Pastor said yesterday was an epiphany for me.  When the disciples were at the last supper with Jesus he told them one of them would betray Him.  All of the disciples except Judas said “Lord is it I?”  Judas was the only one who said “Rabbi, is it I?”  The eleven disciples called Jesus Lord but Judas called Him teacher.  Judas didn’t have the Lord living in Him so he didn’t see Jesus as Lord but only as a teacher. 

  

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to be complete in You.  You are not just the One who walks beside me, You live in me. If You live in me, the byproduct of that is I will produce fruit.  Help me to focus on You and not the world so that I can produce fruit in abundance and make me resilient so that I can withstand the trials of life and learn from them to become more like You.  

       

Scripture: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, bounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.  Colossians 2:6-10