The Pando Tree
Please welcome a guest author for this Unconventional post. John Prothero is a fine thinker, photographer, and writer. You can access his work below. I think you’ll benefit from his thoughts.
On a hillside in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah sits Pando, a massive, single aspen tree that spreads its roots and grows, covering over 100 acres, typical for aspen trees (Populus Tremuloides), which primarily propagate not by dropping seeds, but by spreading out their root structures to send new saplings skyward.
This may sound familiar. In 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12 and 14, the Apostle Paul wrote "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…For the body does not consist of one member but many." In Ephesians 2:21-22 he wrote, "the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."
Our lives as followers of the living God are similar to Pando: we are all members of the Body of Christ, each of us a unique being, but interconnected with each other. In John 15:5, Christ tells us that "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." This interconnectivity through Christ, and more importantly, TO Christ, is the means of our spiritual health, growth and maturity. Like Pando, whose saplings grow through the nutrients provided by the father tree's roots, we grow with the nurturing of Christ through The Spirit.
But what else can Pando teach us about the church? Pando covers over 100 acres. That's tough to visualize, especially for those of us whose house may sit on a piece of land that is only 7000 square feet. Think of a football field, and imagine 75 of them! Those 75 fields match the vastness of Pando. Christ's church is large, and more importantly, it is not made of buildings or properties, but by us: we are the Church. And as members of that body, we are part of something vast, that expands beyond borders, cultures, languages, or ideologies. We are individual members that are yet joined by this common love of God.
Every October, my wife and I make our annual fall photography trip to the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, where we revel in the beauty of the aspen trees that caress the mountains and hug the creeks, seemingly changing overnight from green to yellow, and from yellow to orange. We walk in reverent silence through these trees, and bathe in the shower of the leaves as the afternoon breezes course through the treetops. These trees, or possibly ONE tree, remind us of the very nature of being a follower of the master landscaper Himself: in one body, yet a unique member of that very body. And we listen as the trees testify to that truth, showing us a living example of being one, and yet, being an individual member.
Kick Starting the Application
How Pando-like are you? Can others see your connection to fellow followers? Do you need to understand and grasp and better live in union with other believers? What can you do in the following week or so to deepen that relationship?
John Prothero is a husband, father, photographer, reader and writer, living in southern California. You can follow him on social media, and his photography website at johnprotherophotographer.com.
Instagram: j.prothero.photographer
Facebook: JProtheroPhotog and johnscoffeehouse
Blog: johnscoffeehouse.blogspot.com