Sycamore Seedling

About a year ago I noticed a small sycamore seedling growing in an empty pot of compost in my garden.  I have no idea how it got there but it looked so neat and healthy I left it.  Through the winter of course the two or three leaves disappeared and all that was left was a small thin stem which on more than one occasion I was tempted to throw into the bin.  It really did look pathetic.  But I didn’t and now this year it is flourishing again with a slightly stronger stem and a few more leaves.  I am growing my very own sycamore tree! 

When I was out running today I passed a full grown sycamore tree – not too big but a good sized trunk and a beautifully rounded umbrella of greeny, yellow, fresh leaves.  And it got me thinking.  That the wee spindly stem on my sycamore seedling was in fact a big strong trunk in the making!  I had never thought of it before – but then I have never grown a tree from scratch before.  Everything in nature starts small and gets bigger.  I recognise that every year the stem of the plant carries the growth of leaves that it can manage and that through season after season of birth, growth, death and rebirth it grows bigger and stronger step by step by step.  My little seedling is not ready to carry big branches of spreading leaves and it’s own seeds but one day it will be. 

Our lives too are a serious of joys and sufferings which (if we let them) will strengthen us and sustain us for more emotional and spiritual growth and onward to life in all it’s fullness.  Our faith begins small but one day will be like the mustard seed which, “though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:32)

Just like my little seedling you and I may not be able yet to express our faith in big or profound ways or achieve some great project but one day, just by living life and experiencing all that it has to offer – joys and struggles, we can be that strong tree which others seek refuge in.   I believe that God with infinite Creator wisdom and grace only puts into our hands that which we can carry. So just like I will be tending my little sycamore seedling, allow God’s tender loving care to watch over you and please do let go of anything which just now is too hard or heavy for you to carry. Give it to someone stronger to carry. Give it to God.