Send down roots and send out branches.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe I'm secretly a weird hippie.

Case in point: Lately, I have really admired trees. Not just that I think they're pretty and enjoy looking at them (though they are pretty, and I do enjoy looking at them); but I have wanted to be like a tree.

At this point, you've probably already made up your mind either that that's a great idea and we should all admire trees, or that I'm a weirdo and I should not be trusted. But I'm going to try to explain why I look up to trees in a figurative and not just a literal sense.

First, I admire their stability; I appreciate that they don't move. A tree stays right where it's planted. The trees outside my grandparents' house have been there since before I was born; and if there's no really horrific storm, and if no one decides to build anything, they will be there after I die. People are always getting up and running around; it seems like the place where we are is never quite good enough for us. But not so with trees. They just stand, silent and patient, where the Maker put them; they soak up the sun and the rain and they weather the wind and the storms, and they grow right where they are. I want to be like a tree. I want to be content where I am. Sun or rain, storm or calm, I want to grow where I've been put.

I admire trees because they have roots. Think about a big, old oak tree, with roots spread out for yards around it. It has roots deep underground; and no one can see them, but they're there. They hold it in place. When storms come and the wind blows, the oak still stands, because its roots hold it up. And no one sees them. It sends its roots down deep to nourishment, down and down to dirt and water, and it draws strength from them, and it grows. And it's not showy. No one sees. But it happens. I want to be like a tree. I want to send down roots to where there's good water, to where there's healthy earth. I want to send down roots so that when storms come, I don't get blown over or swept away.

I admire trees because they have branches. They have all that strength in their roots, but it's not enough--if they don't have leaves and branches, they'll die. So they stretch out their hands to catch the sun and draw nourishment and strength from it, too; and this they do in the open for everyone to see. If they were proud of their roots, and ashamed of their need for the sun, they would die; but they humbly reach up to the sky for their life. And in stretching out their branches, they make homes in their arms for birds and squirrels and bugs and all kinds of life, and give shade to everyone who passes under them. They reach out to get life, and they end up giving life, too. I want to be like a tree. I want to send down roots and send out branches. I want to reach out humbly and unashamedly for what I need. I want to be safety like home and gentleness like shade.

I admire trees that grow fruit. They do all the things I've already talked about, and they take their life, and they put it into something that's good, and wholesome, and pleasing to taste; and in doing it, they spread the life that they've drawn, both through their wholesome fruit and from the seeds in it that, hopefully, become more trees. I want to be like a tree. I want to spread goodness. I want to share life.

At bottom, I admire trees because I see in them many of the ways in which I should relate to Jesus. I want to stand still and be content and grow where He puts me; I want to send my roots down deep into His truth and His strength, and draw strength from Him; I want to send branches up in worship and adoration, and send branches out to do His work; I want to grow fruit to nourish and share life with others, and plant seeds to grow more trees for Him. I want and need all of these things.

"Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of YHWH,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers."
Psalm 1:1-3

Yes, please.

And that's why I admire trees.