cross section of a tree

I finally made it back to my local pond this morning, after Hurricane Irene had passed and downed trees had blocked the road.  In fact, two large pine trees were blown down near the water's edge, where I view the pretty water.  Someone had cut through the trees with a sharp chain saw and I decided to count the rings and determine the trees' ages.  They were somewhere between 45 and 50 years old.  The diameter of each tree was about 10".  I noticed that the first rings in the life of each tree were fairly wide...perhaps 1/8 to 1/4 inch in width.  Then must have come some lean years with rings narrowing to something less than 1/8".  But each tree showed the final decade or so of growth with very narrow rings...so small and close that it was hard to separate one year from the next.  It struck me that perhaps those last years of life the tree had put most of its growth energy in the vertical dimension...growing up more than out.  And it occurred to me that, if you could take a look at the cross section of our lives and of our years that we might be similar.  When we are young we measure growth with marked physical change and we grow outward into the physical world.  Then come the lean years when growth stalls a bit with trials and dry times.  But there comes the time in our adult years where the cross-section can't measure the growth properly...these are the years when we learn that most of the growth energy needs to be in the vertical dimension and so, like the pine tree, we reach up to Heaven.   Like the pine tree, you can't get a good measure of our growth from the cross section...whether few years or many, a tree is most noteworthy by its height.  And our upward growth marks our trust in the God who has planted, and rooted and watered us.

2 Peter 3:¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

blessings,

Rob Smith