Rooted

February in North Carolina can bring some crazy weather. Sometimes we get those Spring teaser days of 60 degrees, sometimes we get 6 inches of snow or even the dreaded ice storms.

Had a couple of those recently. I misread the Tea Leaves and didn’t think the first ice storm would be as bad as it turned out to be. Man was I wrong! Really Wrong! Power outages everywhere, roads closed, and lots of trees and limbs down. One of the few times I was caught unprepared. One of the largest trees on my property fell. Fell right through our chicken run, crashed through our chain link fence around the house and missed our house by only a few feet. Measured it to be 82 feet tall.

After the initial shock of the crash and having our power go out at the same time, I headed out to survey the damage. Lots of it to be sure but thankfully no people or critters were harmed. But as I looked at the damage I couldn’t stop thinking of how it happened.

This regal old Tulip Poplar was big and tall. If I had the patience to count the rings I am sure it’s every bit of 100 years old. Definitely a big old Grandaddy of our small patch of woods. So how did it fall? I am sure it wasn’t the first storm it’s weathered. That’s when I made the connection.

It wasn’t just the load of ice although that was a contributing factor. No, it was pulled over from the roots as you can see. It’s been a really wet winter here, we are several inches of rain above average. Add heavy rains, mix in some extra weight of ice and voila, Fallen Tree.

As I pondered the hectic events and the job of cleanup I faced, I connected my tree event with a recent sad report about a very prominent person in the Ministry. Seems he had been hiding some dark secrets. With all the good and positive things he’s done, he fell. Just like my tree. How are they connected? Shallow Roots.

My tall old tree didn’t really have deep roots after all as you can see. No way to know that as it stood tall and looked like every other tree until bad weather came. Same as the fallen Minister, sometimes things can remain hidden – for a while. We all have heavy rains and ice that buffet us in our life’s journey. We all face storms in life, it’s a given. But what and how deep are we rooted in?

Faith? Family? Or maybe we think we’re strong in just ourselves. Old Poplar tree probably felt that way as he outgrew the other trees around him. But when the wind blows and rains come, our roots get tested. They can fail us and send us toppling and crashing with devastating effects on our lives.

While I’ve been busy over the last few weekends with cleanup and repair, I’ve been thinking of roots. What holds me fast? When I lost my Mom to cancer, when I experienced job loss, during my storms did my roots hold? Did I lean or waiver or did my life’s tree dig deeper, look for more stability in the things that matter and hold us firm even in the worst of times?

If the rains, wind and ice haven’t hit your life’s tree yet, they will. If you are weathering a storm right now, dig deeper. Be rooted deeply in the soil of God, dig deeper into the shelter of friends and family and be amazed how tall your tree will stand.