Donna and I own a house in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. It is a vacation place for our family as well as a retreat center and getaway for friends and church members. When we bought it, I named it Grapevine. There is a wooden laser-engraved sign at the front door that says “Welcome to Grapevine”, and right beneath this, “One with Christ, One with Each Other”. Regarding this name and thought, I had in mind John 15:5 and John 17:20-23.
We are in a homeowners’ association. Residents ride around in golf carts, and there are numerous amenities, including outdoor and indoor pools, two small lakes with beaches and Lake Wallenpaupack, two recreation centers, pickleball and volleyball courts, golf cart drive-in movies, and more. Our house is in the woods with neighbors with houses in the woods. It’s a friendly, quiet place with lots to do.
When we first started going up there, we noticed that neighbors around us seemed to have a penchant for cutting down trees on their property. Now, this annoyed me. In my head, I was quite critical. “Here’s a beautiful old oak or ash or pine that probably took a hundred years to grow, and these folks think nothing of having some unfeeling, avaricious tree guy come in to dismember and fell it in one day. Has the primal desire to own and conquer completely displaced all appreciation of aesthetics in the hearts and minds of the blue-collar retiree horde that now surrounds me?”
Last spring, Donna and I went up to Grapevine for one of our Thursday through Saturday weekend getaways. A huge ash tree had fallen and landed right between two storage sheds, mine and the neighbor’s. In the Poconos, strong winds and stormy weather are not uncommon. I used to admire this tall, straight ash from my chair on the screened-in porch. How could wind have taken down such a beautiful specimen? Had it fallen a few yards in either direction, this could have spelled disaster for either the shed, or even my screened-in porch, or the neighbor’s deck.
The landscape and soil in our area of the Poconos, and probably the Poconos in general, can be described in two words: trees and rocks. Big rocks, small rocks, ancient rock fences, and property lines, once recognized, are now defunct are everywhere. The soil is full of rocks, huge ones, flat ones, smaller ones, round ones. Digging a hole on your property with a shovel is not permitted in our homeowners’ association. The soil is full of rocks, tree roots do not travel deeply, and the shallow soil is loose.
Upon seeing this tree in my yard, it hit me why neighbors were taking down trees. They were protecting their homes, porches, and sheds. I had been premature in my judgments. And, of course, this all reminded me of Jesus’ parable of the four types of soil on which seed is sown.
“A farmer went out to sow his seed…Some fell on rocky places, where it did not much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root…The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.” Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21 (NIV)
In this person, the roots of faith are shallow. In the field, the plant withers because of not enough moisture in the shallow, dry soil. In the Poconos, the trees fall because of a lack of deep roots due to much rock and loose soil at the surface. The strong wind and rain come, and some trees fall because they are not strongly rooted. “But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:23 (NIV)
The good soil is the person to whom God has given spiritual sight and strong faith. We sing a song at church written by Sandra McCracken. The first line says, “To Him who can keep you from falling, to Him, to Him, to Him.” The seed planted in good soil grows into a tree that does not fall because God Himself keeps it from falling. Jesus Christ living within the true Christian is his faith, is his strength, is his endurance when the strong winds of trial and anguish of soul occur. This tree needs only to “remain” (John 15:5 NIV) and be held up by God Himself. This tree endures solely because of God Himself living within.
“For true faith, it is either God or total collapse.” A. W. Tozer
Thanks for reading.
Bruce
