The Lesson of the Oak Tree

[Mudcat]

Hi,

I’m Mudcat. I have posted in the apologetics forum some but not here yet. I am an evangelical, at present, who is exploring Catholicism. I wanted to pose something to those who traverse this board and see what sort of reaction it recieved.

A few years back, in a thunderstorm, a lighting bolt blasted the top two thirds of a beautiful oak we have on the edge of our property. For the last two years, it hasn’t given leaf to its remaining branches. I thought it was dead. It is situated at the rear of our land and I hadn’t paid that much attention to it this year. But today I noticed that it had given leaf to all its remaining branches. Though it was stumpy and ugly…it looked strong and healthy.

Is there a lesson to be learned, in the old blasted oak?
If so, what do you think it is?

Respectfully,

Mudcat

 

[the_phoenix]

Though it was stumpy and ugly…it looked strong and healthy.

Is there a lesson to be learned, in the old blasted oak?
If so, what do you think it is?

You will likely get far more deeper answers than this.

Mine is simply the viewpoint of a nature and landscape photographer:

There’s beauty in the old blasted oak. It’s how you look at it through the “camera lens” of life. It’s what you focus on. It’s the perspective in which you see it and frame it. And a good artist will know how to communicate that beauty to others.

Thank you for communicating it to me.

~~ the phoenix

 

[Trishie]

Father, in the name of Jesus, please flood this seeking soul with the fullness of Your love and truth.

I think that the old oak can be like us in our lives when we have been through some of the worst traumas of life, and when for a while we seem almost dead within ourselves and our lives…but we hang on to life and hope somewhere inside by grace of God, until at last our spirits begins to show signs of new life, no matter how damaged our life may have become.

“I was thinking: ‘I have toiled in vain, I have exhausted myself for nothing.’ And all the while my cause was with God, my reward with my God.” [Isaiah 49:3-4] For “the Lord is not being slow to carry out His promises…but He is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways.” [2Peter 3:9]

Therefore, “be patient…until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer, how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has the autumn rains and the spring rains. [James 5:7]

“Out of His infinite glory, may He give you the power through His Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.” “Glory to Him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.” [Ephesians 3:16-20]

God bless you,

Trishie

 

[Mudcat]

Father, in the name of Jesus, please flood this seeking soul with the fullness of Your love and truth.

I think that the old oak can be like us in our lives when we have been through some of the worst traumas of life, and when for a while we seem almost dead within ourselves and our lives…but we hang on to life and hope somewhere inside by grace of God, until at last our spirits begins to show signs of new life, no matter how damaged our life may have become.

God bless you,

Trishie

Hi Trishie,

I agree with a lot of what you have said.

It had been a really bad last several weeks or so. You know, a lot of stress in every aspect of life and “joy” seemed farther away than I would care. I was kinda hit wits end and was praying for the Lord to renew my spirit.

It was then, that I saw I the old tree. I felt we had a lot in common.

Thanks for your insight,

Mudcat