There’s something so powerful about a tree that is able to grow in a difficult place. (These pictures were taken on a hike at Nelson’s Ledges in Ohio a few weeks ago.)

If we are in Christ, Psalm 1 reminds us that we are like a tree planted by the rivers of water, drawing eternal life from the very Source of Life. That’s a gentle and beautiful picture.

But the imagery and example of this tree also offers encouragement when we find ourselves trying to stay on our feet in a hard situation, or struggling to keep our head up through a terrible storm!

See, it was the washing rains and heavy winds that caused this tree to grow strong by digging down deeper roots into the Rock.

And after the storm?

Isaiah 55 says that even the trees will clap their hands at the Ways of the Lord. And Psalm 96:12 states that the very trees will sing for joy at the Coming of the Lord!

So just keep hanging on and pressing forward in life because,

“The wind that blows can never kill
the tree God plants;

It bloweth east, it bloweth west,
the tender leaves have little rest,
but any wind that blows is best.

The tree God plants

strikes deeper root,
grows higher still,
spreads greater boughs,
for God’s good Will meets all its wants.

There is no storm hath power to blast
the tree God knows;

No thunderbolt, nor hurricane;
When they are spent, it doth remain.

The tree God knows,

through every tempest standeth fast,
and from its first day
to its last
still fairer grows.”

Poem taken from Streams in the Desert