Unmoved

It was windy, beyond breezy by several lines on the gauge. I was standing in my back yard looking up at a huge and still bare tree. Although the winter temperatures were past and other trees were in full bloom, this pecan was yet to show any significant signs of spring life.

The stark, naked limbs swaying in the wind against a clear blue sky pointed out a valuable perception. Not everything on a tree moves when the wind blows. And not everything in our lives should move when the exterior pressures elevate.

I must have a solid base, firmly rooted, from which to respond when life pushes me around. Sure, there are lesser extensions of who I am which necessarily must flex with the times, just as the smaller and most extreme branches do. But that can never be the sum of my life. A tree is not small branches. A tree is roots, and trunk, and large limbs, and smaller limbs, and twigs, and leaves.

Within each of us, some parts have to bow and bend. Others do only at great risk to our ongoing survival. God’s design for trees and for us includes both what should give and what should never give.

Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
February 17, 2009