Saturday, July 18, 2009

Dead tree, Deep roots

We lost an ash tree in our yard.
It had been planted there on the side lawn about a year before we moved in.
I didn't treat it any differently than the other trees, but it didn't thrive as well.
Two seasons ago I finally realized that the leaves - what few there were - looked wilted even after a good rain. And the branches weren't filling out or growing. This season there were no leaves and we pronounced it dead.
So I set to the task of digging out the stump. As expensive as  replacement trees are, I figured to save a few dollars on that part. How hard could it be for such a scrawny little tree?
As it turned out, pretty hard indeed.
Once I got below the surface, there were feeder roots everywhere. And the base trunk and root were easily double or triple the diameter of what showed above ground. It took me two days of digging and hacking to finally separate tree from earth. 
I told a few people of my struggle and one noted that trees often die from the top down. Which makes sense. The tree below the surface looked healthy and robust. It had died from the top down.
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:7
If that was true, why did my tree die? Roots looked pretty good to me.
Then the tree crew came to plant our new Black Hills spruce. It's a bigger tree, so they used a back hoe to dig out further and deeper around what I had done by hand.
There around the perimeter of what had been our ash tree was a sheet of plastic.
"Probably came wrapped around the root ball of your other tree," said the landscaper. "That could be what stopped its growth. It would have been fine for a time, but then the plastic blocked its roots."
Sometimes I meet people who have drifted from a vibrant faith to something more wilted. I even look to their root system, which seems strong enough - church attendance, family support. But there must be something blocking the growth, some plastic around the perimeter that I can't see.  Spiritual roots require spiritual nurturing and feeding. And a healthy base that extends way beyond what we can even see just below the surface. 
Let's keep an eye on each other's leaves and dig a little deeper below the surface when we ask,
how is life going for you?

What do you believe?