Friday Photos–Celebrating Hardiness

I’m struck by how many examples of hardiness, persistence, and resilience I see in nature. I think God is trying to tell me something!

Yucca Plant in Bloom

The yucca plant is a good example. Yucca plants are supposed to be desert-dwellers. Yet this one lives thousands of miles away from any desert. For the past several years it has survived snow, bitter cold, rainy summers, dry summers, and anything else that’s come its way. The above picture, taken this year, shows it in full bloom.

Another example for me is an apple tree at the edge of our woods. The tree, leaning precariously, was sure to fall down, we thought. Instead, a large limb came down a few years ago. The wonder of it is that enough of the limb remains attached to the tree so that the limb still receives nutrients. Every spring flowers and leaves appear . The limb arches over the ground and provides shelter for birds and other wild creatures.  Every day I walk to the apple tree to throw bird food on the ground I marvel at the limb’s resilience. Despite the damage done, it still lives!

Apple tree

A third example is a maple tree farther into the woods. Years ago a tree near the maple fell. As it fell it scraped the bark off one side of the maple. I thought the maple tree would die. It didn’t. The maple still comes out in the spring, looking a little odd because only half of it is green, but the tree survives.

To me, these living lessons speak out: if God put so much resilience in mere plants and trees to meet life’s trials and tribulations, how much more then did He put in me!

©P. Booher