A people of Shaking

Some time ago I was watching a YouTube video in which a retired Methodist minister was being interviewed by his daughter.

He was talking for the first time about his experience as a young minister during a particularly distressing disaster and in which he had been heavily involved with at the time, which had taken place 50 years earlier. He was now in his 80’s

He was asked by his daughter if it had affected his faith.

He replied “Oh yes, my faith was shaken. It shook my faith as a tree is shaken in the storm”.

Then he paused for a moment, tears in his eyes, gathering his thoughts.  “But, you see, every tree has roots. And like a tree I was firmly grounded, my roots were deep. The storm roared and terrible shaking took place, but I was never going to be uprooted”

I admit as I watched I wiped a few tears away from my eyes also… but it got me to thinking about storms and roots and branches.

Trees are wonderful things. They clean our atmosphere, soaking up carbon dioxide and by a wonderous chemistry which I don’t profess to understand they give out oxygen.

They provide shelter for all manner of life, and food for some, including ourselves. Who doesn’t like an Apple, a Pear, a Plum…  and that’s just British trees.

They provide protection, a stand of trees is a far better windbreak that a wall or a fence, breaking up the wind, slowing it down, rather than merely deflecting it above, down or around.

And the fruit, the seeds, the nuts whilst providing immediate nourishment also fall from the tree, often propelled by the wind of the storm, and after time produce new trees to continue the process. Their own leaves which have soaked up the Carbon dioxide fall to the ground and become fertile mulch for the fruit to be nourished by, and provide material for nest and den building for a multitude of animals, insects and birds.

And as the seeds put down their roots, the process of finding good solid ground in which to anchor never stops.

Well, I’ve waffled on.

But isn’t the tree and the storm a metaphor for the Christian life?

Providing shelter, cleansing the atmosphere, feeding, nourishing, breaking the strength of the wind of stress and fear, loneliness and strife?

Does God stop the wind of adversity shaking us?

No.

Is it productive to have that shaking?

Yes.

Does the fruit we bear help us to grow into the forest and woods, protecting and sheltering each other.

Something for me to ponder on.