Faith Like a Palm Tree

“So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, Strengthened in your faith just as you were taught.”  

Colossians 2:6-7a

The last couple of weeks I have spent a lot of time watching news reports of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.  Those were two powerful and destructive storms.  Many, many people have lost everything in Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean.  Our hearts go out to all who are hurting and our prayers go up to God.  If you are looking for a way to help, I would send you to the website of the Texas District of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod  (www.txlcms.org).  You will find a link there that will tell you how you can help the victims of Hurricane Harvey.  I imagine you would find a similar link if you went to the website of the Florida-Georgia District of the LCMS.

Watching the news clips of the storms, you can’t help but be amazed by the powerful and destructive winds.  This time, however something caught my eye in those clips – the palm trees.   What amazed me is how many of them took the beating of the hurricane and survived.  Watching them blown in the wind, some bent over to the ground by the wind, I wondered, “How is it that they don’t break?  Why aren’t they uprooted?”  I know that some were broken and uprooted.  But many were not.  Watching how strong those storms were, I wondered – what is it about palm trees that enables them to withstand terrible storms?  So, like all good modern-day knowledge seekers, I googled it.

Here is what I learned.  “There are two main advantages the palm tree has over other trees, the roots and the shoot structure.  Unlike other trees, the roots can fare well in both very wet and very dry soils.  Generally preceding the heavier storms, the soil gets very wet.  Whereas, this allows most trees to slide easier (and thus fall over more easily), with the palm tree this actually makes the roots attach to the ground better and stronger… The shoot of the tree is strong and yet flexible, with few branches for the wind to catch – helping the tree to bend but normally not break.  There you have it – the two things that make a palm tree strong in a storm – good roots and a strong core.

Those same two things also make all the difference for you and me when it comes to weathering the storms of life – having good roots and a strong core.  Storms in life – big and small will come.  Like hurricanes they will have many names – death, cancer, divorce, failure, job loss, among others.  You live in Florida you will have sunshine and hurricanes.  You live in a sinful world, you will have good days and stormy days.  You can’t expect every day to be sunny and easy.  You need to be prepared for the storms. One friend, describing the impact of Hurricane Irma, thanked God that her home had been built to the latest hurricane standards.    In the same way, if you want to be ready for life’s storms, you need to set down strong spiritual roots and strengthen the core of your faith in Christ.   That’s Paul’s point in Colossians 2 -  “So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthen in your faith just as you were taught.”    A growing faith in Jesus… a faith fed on the word of God, faithfully receiving God’s grace at the Lord’s Table – that is a faith being more and more rooted and built up on Jesus. That’s how God grows in you and me faith like a palm tree – faith that can bend in life’s storms but will not break and will not be uprooted… no matter how bad it gets.  Jesus Himself explained what a difference such faith makes – “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose , and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”