The Evergreen Oak

All winter long, while other trees were bare, one proud oak remained green and leafy.  But on closer inspection, the leaves proved not to be its own: it was the host of masses of evergreen mistletoe and lichens.  Slowly, the parasites had taken over this once mighty tree, lending it an illusion of continual life even while draining it of its strength.  When the trees around it that had appeared dead began to show their lively young green once again, its own appearance of life began to pale in comparison to the real life it was now too enfeebled to display.  It remained dull green, leafy . . . and dead inside.

How often do our lives reflect the false life of this oak?  We are ashamed to look bare and empty, so we cover ourselves with substitutes to disguise the lack we feel of the real life God would have for us.  But upon encountering true life in its humble vibrancy, we can see the worthlessness of our sorry attempts.  We would not wait for God to bring color to our lives in His time and His way, and now we reap the reward: weakness and inability to live an unhindered, growing life.  The parasitical substitutes must be cut away before they kill our hearts and leave us nothing but a dead host for dull, worthless habits.  In the seasons of dormancy, let us not be deceived by our lack of glorious life, but be assured that God is preparing us in the winter for a flourishing spring of His grace.  Wait for Him!

A Child's Faith

“The stranger himself did not make her afraid.  On the contrary, he reassured her. . . . Since she had met this goodman in the wood, it seemed as though all things were changed about her. . . . Before her soul was cold, now it was warm.  Cosette was no longer afraid . . . she was no longer alone; she had somebody to look to.”

~Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo

It is the nature of young children to be trusting.  Indeed, they often must be taught to be wary of strangers, because to them, any kind person may instantly become a friend with whom they will be willing to go anywhere or do anything.  They do not take into account their companions’ appearance, reputation, name, or status, only the affection and acceptance they offer.  They will readily believe anything that a trusted adult tells them.  Innocently gullible as they are, they possess a refreshing trait which most of their elders have lost: they are uncalculating in their response to love, their hearts not yet hardened and skeptical.

In adulthood, experience too often leads us to demand assurance before we will risk opening our hearts to another person.  We have to know first: well-informed (or perhaps uninformed) judgments and suppositions about others take the place of child-like trust.  We have concluded that we must guard our own safety, manage our own provision, and depend on no one.  A child trusts only because he can’t manage alone; we can take care of ourselves.

Just as a child’s trusting attitude toward man can be so easily directed in simple faith to God, the grown-up’s independent distrust of his fellows likewise may correspond to his view of his Creator.  It is a great risk to put his whole life in the hands of One he cannot see or understand.  He continually seeks proof of God’s goodness, afraid to respond unreservedly, like an innocent child, to the love showered on him.  No wonder Jesus says that only the childlike will enter His Kingdom!  A child’s faith can put his teachers to shame – he is told that God is good, and he believes it without question.  He may know next to nothing about theology, but to him, God is real, and He is his Friend.  Such a child knows what we are so quick to forget: we are not alone; we have Somebody to look to, if we will.  May we become like children again, throw all self-preserving skepticism to the wind, and take His hand in fearless trust.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the

Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

Mark 10:15