Leaning Trees



On the first night I camped in Colorado's San Isabel National Forest, I was so focused on setting up my campsite that I didn't see the two enormous pine trees looming over me.  

It was my first solo camping trip and the first time I have been camping since I took my middle son for a night at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort, which wasn't exactly roughing it.  

I didn't see the trees that first night, nor much of anything else around me, really.  Instead, I was intent on getting everything set up correctly, building a fire, getting my grill working, and getting some dinner before I fell asleep exhausted from two days of long drives.   

It wasn't until the following morning that I saw them, as the morning sun bathed them in a golden glow, and I finally looked up while making coffee.  

This is what I saw: 


The tree on the left had experienced some kind of trauma because its top had broken off, and it was leaning on the tree to the right. If the tree on the right had not been there, the traumatized tree would have almost certainly fallen to the ground. 

But it stood because it was being held up by its sister, and it had been held up so long that it was hard to distinguish where one ended, and the other began at their point of contact.  

I was so taken by this that I spent most of the evening that day staring at them. 

I thought about the times in my life when the storms came and left me shaken, traumatized, and unable to stand on my own.  I thought of the people who let me lean on them for support when I felt like I was falling.  

I also thought of how my faith in a loving God had been a strong and steady anchor during some of the worst times of my life.  

Those trees also became a metaphor for how the storms of life can often change us.  We grow differently after they take their toll on us, but we still grow if we lean on whoever supports us.  

We often find that as we grow from that new space, something new begins to flourish.  

You may be reading this and trying to stand on your own after experiencing a storm. You feel like you are going to topple over, but you've been white-knuckling it, hoping that you can stay upright. 

It might be time to admit that you need some support.  It could come in the form of a loved one, a trusted friend, or perhaps a renewed faith in a God who will not let you fall.  

It's okay to ask for help.  To quote the old song by Bill Withers, "We all need somebody to lean on" from time to time.  

May it be so for us all.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us, now and forever. Amen.  

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