Live Oaks… dead trees?
We have a big Live Oak in our front yard that looked like a dead oak for a long while after the Big Freeze.
Live Oaks, indigenous to North Texas, take a beating from the summer heat annually without missing a beat. But the sub-zero temperatures that wreaked such havoc with our area generally was a novel stress-test for them. Some (like ours) manifested damages that looked lethal.
Live Oaks are not deciduous. Under normal circumstances, they are in leaf all year round, dropping leaves and sprouting new ones in perpetuity. A Live Oak that is brown or bare declares visually: dead. And post Big Freeze, our Live Oak (like many in our ‘hood), made that declaration in somber tones.
Arboretum Discipleship
In scripture, trees are a much-used metaphor for disciples. Psalm 1 says of those who obey God’s law:
They are like trees
(Psalm 1:3)
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
Jeremiah expands on this image:
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
(Jeremiah 17:8)
whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
I wonder, though, whether sometimes we disciple-trees can look like my Live Oak after the Big Freeze: stripped of our foliage, brittle, dead?
The Big Freeze was a weather-version of the kind of cataclysmic shocks that happen (not often, but with horrific power) in life. The damage from such shocks is dramatically visible… and often suggests “death.”
Picture with me: The family reeling from a terminal diagnosis of one of their own. The spouse staggering after a betrayal and divorce. The Christian community paralyzed by fear in the face of social upheaval and economic duress. Parents trying to trust prodigals to God… for years…
Things can look really, really bad sometimes – even for those who trust in the Lord.
Seen vs. Unseen
Our Live Oak is leafing out now. Every day, there is a little more green to admire and a little less brown bareness to lament. It looked dead – but it was not dead. How?
Roots. Our Live Oak’s fuel-tank for endurance and engine for growth are mostly underground, hidden from our eyes. Mark’s watering and feeding regimen – implemented year after year when everything looked fine up top – clearly had a nourishing effect that kept the tree alive even through the huge shock. Even through the appearance of death.
The health of the roots (unseen) was more important than the health of the branches (seen). And the health of the unseen roots ultimately re-invigorated the branches, with visible results.
Appearances are often deceptive
That principle holds true for disciples. Though the scriptural metaphors above specifically describe green leaves / lack of withering, Job – the ultimate Biblical example of one who endured the kind of life shock we’re talking about – had this to say:
For there is hope for a tree,
(Job 14:7 – 9)
if it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
8 Though its root grows old in the earth,
and its stump dies in the ground,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth branches like a young plant.
Isaiah’s image of God re-making barren wilderness into a forest of choice trees aligns with Job’s image of the resurrected tree:
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
(Isaiah 41:18 – 20)
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
20 so that all may see and know,
all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The take-away for us: things may look really, really bad – even for God’s faithful.
The visuals may holler “death” in the way that old roots, stumps, bare heights, and dry land do.
But “the scent of water” – the “hand of the Lord” – the author of Life – remains sovereign, no matter what things look like.
And if our roots are sunk into His nourishing truth, we will endure the shocks and be re-invigorated for new growth.
No matter how your life looks, feed your roots
One thing that the Big Freeze demonstrated on a massive scale: it’s too late to nourish roots when the crisis is happening. Root-care has to be ongoing and established to be of any benefit in re-invigorating after a traumatic shock. Talk about a direct application to disciples!
Our daily walk with Jesus has to be that – a daily walk – if we are going to truly have the life and vigor and fruitful resilience that scripture describes for us. See Paul’s exhortation about root-health in his letter to the Christians at Colossae:
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
(Colossians 2:6 – 7)
The Colossians, like all disciples of their day, lived under severe persecution. The likelihood of traumatic shocks was high and ongoing. Root care – lives focused on Jesus daily – was Paul’s prescription for them. And for us.
An inverse truth about seen / unseen
At our prior residence, we had a Live Oak that looked fine – green year round, bark the right color and texture, etc. But we noticed that it didn’t grow… it stayed the same size and shape for three years running. Mark finally decided to replace it with something more interesting, and when he cut it down he discovered: the tree was rotten at the core. It looked okay on the outside, but it was already dead on the inside. The only indicator we had was the lack of growth.
That applies to us disciples, too. Sometimes we settle for the appearance of life in the absence of growth. Friends, if we aren’t growing, then we are rotting on the inside.
But even here there’s direct encouragement from scripture!
6 Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8 He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
(Luke 13:6 – 9)
I love this parable for several reasons. First, manure brings fruitfulness! How encouraging to be reminded that for trees (and for disciples) that which stinks to high heaven can be used by God to bring health and vigor! Second, longstanding fruitlessness can be remedied. “No fruit” for consecutive years does not mean “no fruit” forever.
But there is a cautionary message, too: eventually, we will be held accountable for our fruitfulness – and fruitfulness is always a direct indicator of dailyness with Jesus.
Busyness, accomplishments, to-do-lists, etc. are not fruitfulness… Paul’s Colossians description of being “rooted in Christ” correlates directly with Jesus’s teaching:
4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
(John 15:4 – 5)
Never hopeless
No matter what state we find ourselves in at this moment – in full leaf and active growth, in traumatized post-shock leaflessness, in stunted / root-starved appearance mode – whatever! – God has what we need. God IS what we need.
31 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
(Matthew 13: 31 – 32)
