And here's why.
It was Friday morning. I was sleepy...(when am I not?) This day had a bit of sadness in the air....this feeling of unsteady had been present in the wind for awhile now. If I closed my eyes and listened hard enough, I could almost hear the sad melody in the shifting of the leaves…(goodness, I'm being dramatic).
I decided I need to fix this feeling...so I set out for an adventure. I grabbed all my things, and began to walk...and I ended up where most of my adventures take me. Lying on a patch of green grass looking up at big beautiful blue sky, and being surrounded with the presence of Jesus. As I was lying down, I looked at the palm tree above me. It was swaying pretty hard in the wind. I started looking around at all the other palm trees, and they were all bendy too!
What if it just falls down and collapses on me?
I decided that wouldn't be the worst way to die.
I also decided I felt a lot like that tree. The wind is blowing pretty hard these days. I'm not able to stay steady and still; it's swaying me. I can't stop it. ...I started remembering all the other Palm trees I've seen...and I realized how incredibly tall they become! I couldn't help but wonder how they don't fall over. I decided to do some research. It turns out, Palm trees are monocots. My brain isn't good at explaining sciency-stuff, but I'm going to try. By quoting someone who explains it better. hehe.
"Monocots have embryos that sprout straight up in a single shoot, instead of up and out with branches, as dicots do. A palm grows straight up, gaining its height on overlapping leaf bases. Palm trees have bundles of vascular strands that carry nutrients up and down the tree. It’s like a thick steel cable woven from a lot of smaller steel wires. each strand in these vascular bundles is connected to the root system. Dicots have woody roots, and in most dicots, 80 percent of the root system is within the top two feet of soil. (I don't want to be a dicot!)
Anyone who has ever tried to dig up a palm can tell you it has fibrous roots that not only fan out to great distances, but also go down deep. Like to somewhere down around the tectonic plates. So all this combines to give a palm tree a very solid base in the ground and a very supple trunk that will bend in the wind without breaking."
Aah!! This literally makes me do a happy dance. Did you catch all that he said?? Palm trees shoot STRAIGHT UP. They don't have branches sticking out like other trees, that could catch the wind and fall. How often do I reach out instead of up to steady myself in the wind, and fall because of it? They have vascular bundles directly connected to the roots, and they grow layer by layer. They bend, but they don't break. They are SOLID, because they have a stable foundation. And they are only focused on going one direction.
Luke 21:31-32 says
"Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
I feel like a little wheat kernel. I'm being tossed up and down, up and down. But do you know what happens when wheat is sifted? All the chaff is blown away, and only the good and pure remains.
Maybe you feel like this. But remember what Jesus says--"I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail." Jesus prays for you. Maybe you feel like you're in a windy storm, and you're being bent and swayed all over the place. Remember your roots. Look to your foundation. No matter how hard the wind blows and threatens, it cannot reach what's underneath--the foundation. If Jesus and His Word is your root system, then you will survive the tsunami, just like those Palm trees do. And Jesus is a much stronger foundation than monocot roots!!!!
1 Peter 5:10:
"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you."
Hang on, little wheat kernel! Don't be shaken, little Palm tree. The wind will cease, the storm will end, and you will come out all the more strengthened and all the more secure.
(also, here's the source about the cool Palm tree stuff. Cause I'm pretty sure plagiarism is punishable by death...)http://arizonaoddities.com/2010/07/why-dont-palm-trees-blow-down-in-the-wind)
