Lessons From An Unusual Source

I was reading about oak trees last week. A mature oak tree can have up to 500 million root tips with its root base reaching four to seven times the width of the tree’s crown. I thought that number was amazing. As I continued reading I found something even more surprising.

Some oak trees are compatible species, meaning they graft their roots together and with their shared root systems form a symbiotic relationship. The older, more mature trees are able to provide nutrients to the weaker trees. In fact, stumps can continue to live and contribute to the forest through their root systems.  Consequently, oak trees do best when planted with other oak trees. In fact, when oak trees are weak, they can be helped by planting younger trees next to them, so they can share a root system, increasing the vigor of the weaker trees.  After the older trees die, their root systems can continue to assist and feed the younger living trees.

I find that information amazing. I never would have realized that. It makes me see I need to plant some additional oak trees on the shop property by my new oak tree. But I think I learned some things about shared relationships that are important.

In Genesis, we learn things from the faith and knowledge of Adam and Eve. I hear their story and after they are mere stumps on the landscape, their faith continues to feed my own. We could speak of all of the giants of faith, Abram, Moses, Hannah, Jephthah, Gideon, David, Isaiah, Malachi, the Apostles, early church leaders all contribute to my faith today. Even the writings of the early church fathers of the first few centuries of the foundation of the church contribute to my faith. The writers of church history, the writers of the Reformation movement, the Restoration movement, along with contemporary devotional and study materials, all help enrich and add vitality to my spiritual life.  While many of them are dead and gone, their root system combined with my own continues to enrich me.

The implications for church life are glaringly obvious. It is our interconnection that causes us to be strong and viable. Living in isolation, like a tree planted by itself, will never have the vitality and viability of a tree within a forest. Christians need each other. Multiple generations need each other, one gaining and providing to the other. Multiple cultures need each other. We grow, we mature at different rates.  Differing ethnicities should not live or function in isolation from each other, we all contribute to the betterment of the whole.

I pray I can remember this lesson the next time I become short with those who differ from me. The next time I am tempted to roll my eyes because a certain song style is used too much, or the message seems to be more geared to others rather than my needs. I think I’ve learned that your spiritual health is not only important because I love you, but because I benefit from it as well.