Today is another atypically toasty day. A warm wind whisks away the typical fall chill. I throw my laptop and my Bible in the car and head for my favorite hideaway. Last time I was here, watching crayfish, a high summer sun baked the lichen-covered outcroppings and glinted off the deep green leaves. The wind spoke soothing words of long summer days to come. Today the sun rides low in the southern sky. Crisping leaves tell the story of impending cold, but their showy colors soften the blow.
The sugar maples are always first to strut their stuff. They make their seasonal debut in deep red, rich gold, bright orange and soft peach hues. The sumacs are dressed in their fall best with colors that graduate from gold to red, all on one plant. The pines, in their rich green fur coats, stand in complementary contrast to their boldly clad counterparts. Even they shed some unwanted gold needles. The birches, poplars and oaks, however, are still sporting their green gowns. It takes them a little longer to change out of their summer clothing, but they’ll best dressed in their fall best soon, too.
The oaks are another matter altogether. They’ll be the last to change color and stubbornly cling to their dead leaves, many of them until their new leaves sprout in the spring. Perhaps God granted them a slightly longer season because they take so long to grow and mature.
Today I feel like one of those green oak trees… slow to change, slow to grow. I’ve trusted in God most of my life. He has been working diligently to make me more Christ-like but I must confess, I haven’t always been very cooperative. Sure, I’ve grown and changed through the years. I say less, listen more, and understand God better. But I have so far to go. And progress seems painfully slow. Since my lifespan is closer to a birch’s than an oak’s, it’d be great if I could grow as fast as a birch, too!
There are some advantages to being an oak tree, though. Oaks put down deep, life-giving roots that help them stand through storms and fires and droughts. I hope I’m as sturdy as an oak, able to withstand the stuff of life. Paul exhorted the Colossians, “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Colossians 2:6,7)
Maybe you’re like me – a little slow to grow but with roots in the fertile soil of faith. I pray, by God’s mercy, our roots will hold. He will continue building us up in Him until our dying day… still incomplete and imperfect until we stand face to face with our Savior… and then complete only in Him. In the years ahead, may our overflowing gratitude be evidenced by more obedience, more submission, and more change “to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6)