Follow the Oak

"In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory." — Isaiah 61:3

For most of the spring and summer, oak trees tend to go unnoticed, blending in with the rest of the landscape. But they sure stand out in the fall when you're trying to rake the lawn and are waiting, waiting, waiting for the oak to drop the last of its leaves. Never happens. And in the dead cold of winter, you look up, and there they are, still hanging on. "What's with that?"

Well, consider:

• Where other trees tend to root in shallow soil, the oak's tap root goes deep and straight down for nourishment and water, so that it is able to adapt to and withstand prolonged seasons of drought;
• Its root system when added up is measured in miles, not feet; it is not satisfied with surface or easiest to grab soil, but can dig, twist, turn, and stretch around hard or rocky ground in search of sustenance and strength;
• That nourishment and persistence results in a wood whose density is known as one of the strongest and most hardened of all God's trees;
• And, accordingly, resistant to attack by bugs, fungus, and "ites" of every kind;
• And those leaves that won't fall off? Something within an oak's fruit system is always alive, no matter how cold or difficult the season. 

Not surprisingly, the same God who calls the stars by name also really knows His trees, and more than that, knows which one in particular best symbolizes the child of God who believes, increasingly trusts, and persistently walks with Him. The great oak is what we are positionally, and what God desires us to be practically.

Little wonder, then, that there seems to be this strangely persistent longing to put down deeper and stronger roots in our walk. Maybe because that's what we were re-born for: to stand faithful in a world of ever-increasing confusion, to love more with the kind of Love that endures forever...

...to be one whose life is so marked by persevering faith, hope, and joy in its Maker that it might prompt someone, someday, to ask "What's with that?"