sacred strokes

The leaves are falling pretty quickly in Western NY these days. Soon, there will hardly be any left still clinging to their branches. Autumn is my favorite season and sugar maples just might be my favorite tree during that time of year. Their leaves turn a beautiful bright orange color and they bring a flame-like glow to the woods or landscape. There’s a vibrancy and subliminal warmth there, and then those leaves descend. Suddenly, even those sugar maples, along with nearly every other kind of tree, are left exposed, empty, barren, and essentially colorless.

But then we have the good ol’ Pinaceae family. I know it’s not quite synonymous with the term “evergreens” but evergreens is certainly a more commonly used term, and for good reason. It literally describes the plant – one which is always green, despite the season at hand. Thank God for evergreens. To me, they are a visual symbol that life can endure even in the harshest, darkest times, and that there is always some color to be found in this world if we search for it.

Evergreens also symbolize something more personal to me. More centered around each of us as individuals. Have you ever noticed how some trees are their most beautiful during the spring months? The summer months? The autumn months? To be honest, evergreens look rather bland and boring during those seasons compared to the array of flowers, fruits, colors, leaf shapes, and fullness offered by other tree varieties. But in the winter – that’s when the evergreens shine. When their steadfastness and constancy is appreciated. When suddenly their boring old green makes them the most colorful and pleasing plants on the scene.

I am of the opinion that we should aim to be like the evergreens. We should aim to be people whose colors are true and constant regardless of the situation at hand. That we don’t offer a pleasing front during particular times and then become someone else at other times. I would suggest that we ought to be reliable and steady, independent of our circumstances.

Some of us see adversity approaching, tough times ahead, or even something we don’t agree with or would rather not deal with, and all the positive characteristics with which we have adorned ourselves quickly fall to the ground. We are colorless and conniving and cruel during those harsher times. Because although we have donned some positive traits at particular times, they are not a part of who we truly are underneath it all. Under all the masks and fronts and facades. Then, when the hard times hit, when winter is approaching or when we don’t get our way, watch out because everything is going to come to the surface. When those times come (and they always will), will we be like the evergreen, still full and green and alive in Christ – or are we going to be like any other tree, exposed as being truly dull, lifeless, and empty of God’s goodness?

Ephesians 6:13-17 says, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Yes! We should put on those positive, good, and godly characteristics – truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and the word of God – and we should never take them off! I think of the things that have been put on trees – various straps and screws and nails for decorations or birdfeeders. There comes a time, when those things have been on the tree for long enough, that they actually become engulfed by the tree altogether; they become an irremovable part of the tree itself. That is how we ought to be with that armor of God! That is what can make us like an evergreen!

As an evergreen never loses its color, as it is tried and true and constant, that is how we ought to be in this life. In our faithfulness and in our goodness. In our devotion to God. Job was an evergreen. Noah was an evergreen. Abraham was an evergreen. And Jesus was the ultimate evergreen!

We should not be fair-weather friends or fair-weather Christians. We should not have fair-weather love and fair-weather righteousness. We should not be decent human beings only when it suits us or works in our favor. During the winter months, during the hardest times of persecution and dismay, those are the times when we can truly shine! We can stand firm and stand true. We can be like the evergreens and proclaim that hope lives on! Goodness and truth live on and will prevail! They live on in us, as a part of who we are, through God’s Holy Spirit and because of Jesus Christ.

A tree’s true colors always come out – and any other than those of the evergreen will one day fade and fall. They cannot endure against adversity and hardship. But an evergreen is able to stand firm because its colors never cease to shine, to offer hope, and to bring glory to God.

May I be like an evergreen, Lord, I pray.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” – Psalm 51:10, HLC