Adapting by Wendy Barker
It’s amazing how often one can walk the same path, and yet learn something new from it. On yet another wander down Willingdon Beach trail, I got to thinking in a different way about those beautiful and interesting trees along the way.
Some grow straight and tall and appear unaffected by years of wind, storm, erosion or other ills. Some grow tightly together with one or two others, forming a strong and almost unbroken connection that makes them seem as one tree. A few have spread their roots over old fallen trees, drawing their nourishment from the past until the nurse tree has completed disintegrated and the young one grows on stilts above a space that will always hold the shape of its nurse. There are trees that have been knocked over, but continued to grow and bend towards the light, creating fantastical shapes. The odd one has been struck by lightning, killing a section of it, but somehow leaving the tree able to recover and send out new growth.
It was a lesson to me about the resilience that God has built into the living world. All life has some capacity to adapt to adversity ~ else no life would exist. Adversity may bend us in new directions and leave us looking a little different, but we are given the gift of adaptability.
Words to Consider …
“…suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
~Romans 5:3b-5 (ESV)
Prayer
Creator God
In this time that seems all out of joint,
Remind us that you have created us to be creative, and given us the gift of adaptability.
Help us to find new ways to be your people in this world.
Amen