by Richelle Hecker

The nurturing of faith.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 New American Standard Bible

Eight years ago we planted this apple tree. My daughter chose to do this as a representation of her growing faith. The garden stone in front of the tree says, “Tree of Faith, Joshua 1:9.” She chose a fruit tree because, as we grow, we produce spiritual fruit. Just like a fruit tree, at the beginning of our faith we may not produce as much fruit as we will once we’ve grown up.

You may wonder why this tree is still so small after eight years. This poor tree has gone through some pretty massive struggles. It has suffered through high winds, early freezes, and huge hail storms. Some years were drought years, and I couldn’t water it as much as I would have liked.

One hail storm nearly killed the tree. The main trunk of the tree did die and I had to cut it down. Several sprouts were growing at the bottom of the tree, so rather than giving up and uprooting the whole thing I allowed them to grow to see what might happen. This was a tree meant to represent my daughter’s faith after all, and I was not ready to give up on it.

This year the sprouts finally grew strong enough that I could cut down smaller ones and focus on the four strongest. This tree has fought to stay alive. Because of the things it has experienced, its roots are strong and deep. Eventually its leaves and blossoms will spread high above everything else and produce good fruit in its season.

What a perfect tree this is to represent faith. Many times our faith is tested by trial and storm. Sometimes it becomes weak in places and may even appear to be dead. But if well planted, these things will only strengthen our roots and cause our faith to be ultimately deeper and stronger. We need pruning, directing, and feeding. Our Heavenly Father does these things for us, so that we too will bear good fruit in season.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Spring, CO