Last week, James and Brae brought us an exposition of Psalm 23, God is our shepherd. God is inviting us to sit quietly with him as He fills us up. The future of you is that of growing majestically like a tree in the forest or in a meadow. They gave us ways to connect personally with God.
This week, I want to look at not you, but us, the church. We are not one, but many. We are not a single tree in a forest but a grove of trees. As aspen trees grow strong by sharing their roots, redwoods interlock their roots forming a bond that cannot easily be broken. That degree in natural resources, namely dendrology, came in handy, finally, didn’t it? If you have ever read the Overstory, it is a story of nine people and their love and respect for trees. They work together, unsuccessfully and in culturally unacceptable ways, to end deforestation. The book also describes how trees cooperate and communicate to stay alive, which parallels the nine people that join roots to try and save the trees. The intermingling of lives makes them stronger. The church is a grove of trees like that. Magnificent, beautiful, and strong, but vulnerable. In Deuteronomy 4, God has two (not three), two suggestions for the people of God to stand strong for him against the current deforestation, rising tall and prominent in the world today. God has called us, the church to resist extinction, and continue the beauty of creation in the world.
