Those trees had been around for years, but being in Southern California, palm trees don't necessarily get as much of our attention, since they are everywhere. They certainly didn't seem to impress the rest of my family as we passed by them on the way back home from church one beautiful, clear Sunday afternoon.
"Those? Oh." My wife responded sleepily, then closed her eyes.
"Mmmph..." My kids were nearly as enthusiastic in the back seat about these towering giants.
"Yeah, aren't they huge? I was just thinking, it'd be a very bad thing if one of those trees ever falls over. Imaging all the damage it can cause."
The problem with having a lot of tall trees is that they sometimes will fall, and occasionally in bunches. A major windstorm in late 2011 put the normally inconspicuous Temple City, CA, for several days on national television as unusually fierce winds knocked down about 500 trees in the city and caused about 10 million dollars in damage. Some of the power lines toppled likewise, and we were without electrical power for 5 days.
"Glenn, you're wrong." Suddenly my wife woke up. The opportunity to correct me must have energized her. "I guess you don't know that palm trees have very deep roots, and they don't fall like other trees. Did you realize that not a single palm tree fell during the windstorm?"
I couldn't verify the facts while driving, but I knew that my wife was correct. She is, after all, the gardener and landscape expert in our family, and being a member of the local CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), she would have much more first-hand information when it comes to disaster information and readiness. Indeed, the palm tree is characterized by the presence of both a network of shallow, fibrous roots, as well as a very deep anchoring root, whose purpose is to prevent the palm from toppling. Palms sway and bend in the wind, but they don't break.
Just as deep, anchoring roots keep palm trees standing during windstorms, a deep-rooted and deep-anchored faith will keep our lives from collapse when severe trials and difficulties arise in our lives. Job was described as being the wealthiest man in the world, but because his faith was in God and not in his great wealth, he was able to weather the loss of all his possessions, all his children, his health, and the respect of his wife and friends, until God not only restored his possessions, family and reputation, but provided him abundantly more than before.
Our roots also need to be in Christ and in applying his words:
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. (Matthew 7:24-25)
May we be deeply rooted and stand in times of adversity, like the mighty palm tree during storms.
It's a good thing that there aren't any coconut trees in the neighborhood. Flying coconuts can be a problem....
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