Parable of the Russian Olive Tree

Don't laugh at me. This is serious.

I was chopping down the trees in my back yard today. The first one I chopped out last week was rotted out in the center of the tree, all the limbs were the same way and I was able to push it over without much effort after chopping a little more than half way through it. Today I started tearing the limbs off the tree I was working on, same story, the limbs were rotted out in the center. So I assumed that the trees were just a weak wood as they are still growing, they aren't dead trees.

A little back story here, my grandparents came up to visit some time last month or the month before and my grandfather identified the trees as Russian Olive Trees. He said that they are related to the olive trees in Israel, but that they don't produce fruit. End of back story.

So I begin chopping through the tree, and I hardly put a dent in the trunk after the first five minutes of chopping. I was like.. what the heck, maybe I just have a dull ax (which it is dull, but that wasn't the problem) I get half way through the tree (which took me about an hour and this isn't a very thick tree) and I hit the center and so I decide to try pushing it over. Yeah. It didn't budge. And I thought of that movie of which I couldn't think of the title where the guy says "strong like bull". And I'm thinking... man, if this tree was a bull, I would have had it on the ground bleeding out like 300 swings ago. Heck.. I would have "felled" said bull on the first swing, straight for the jugular. No playing around with that one. Even if I missed the jugular, it would be what? one or two swings more and strong bull would be out for the count. No. The phase should now be, "Strong like Russian Olive Tree".

And I started thinking about religious principles, and I know that eventually I will fall this tree and it will succumb to me, but that we should structure our lives and build ourselves up spiritually to be like this olive tree so that when the storms of Satan come we can withstand his ax till his arms weaken and his strength fails him. And unlike this olive tree, we can seek refuge and recover from the blows he delivers to us in our lives.

The other thought that I had as I was chopping, Just outside the center of the tree at the base was a knot in the wood. Knots form where branches are meant to grow in. This knot formed in near the center of the tree which is where every change in us starts. We cannot change ourselves from the outside in, but we must change ourselves from the inside out. If this limb had started to grow near the outside of the tree, it would not be nearly as strong as it would be as it would have been in the center of the tree. On the outside, it would have fallen to the storms nature brings as we would fall to the storms of Satan. And thus our repentance should be, a formation from the center, from the foundations of our souls that brings about a desire for change and that is strengthened as it grows through time.

And may we all be "Strong like Russian Olive Tree".