Bricks & Branches - 2010

Life requires growth. Growth requires challenge; something strange and new; something we may fear. But facing this fear is the only way to grow. Think of a tree, reaching for the sun, its source of light, life, and power. Day after day it keeps reaching higher and higher, as if to say to the sun, “I need you. Strengthen me.” Each new season presents a new set of challenges to overcome, but the tree will weather them all. It will remain strong after the summers and winters have come and gone. It will grow in strength, as with every passing day a new layer of bark is being formed, preparing the tree for the challenges ahead; all the while the tree is increasing in size and integrity, wisdom and maturity. Embedded in each layer are the remnants of what it took to make it to this day. Each wrinkle and groove holds priceless wisdom, preserved in a time-capsule of thickened skin brought on by the rigors of passing time. Collecting these memories, the wrinkles and scars, becomes the foundation for the coming change; a foundation of integrity, able to withstand any storm.

Building on this foundation, consider a mason, carefully and dutifully laying each course of brick. He depends on the foundation he has already set in place, not only to stand up under the weight of the new layers, but to provide them with a base of strength and integrity.

We may not notice the strength the past provides until we can look at ourselves, our lives, through the lens of time, and connect the rings of the seasons we have made it through. We are the trees, but we didn’t plant ourselves. It is the Great Gardener who looks after us, making sure we have the sun and water we need to survive. We are the bricks. We are the wall. But it is the Master Mason who forms us into something strong and useful, as we are stacked higher toward the heavens.

Let us grow then, ever closer to the Son, our ultimate source of power, light, and life, as our layers continue to build our strength for each and every challenge the future will provide.

12-29-09