“Oaks of Righteousness”
Justin Jones / Executive Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Strategic Development
My family and I just got back from my sabbatical. We give our pastors a sabbatical once every seven years to rest, reflect, and prayerfully imagine the next season of their ministry. We spent some time at home for part of the month, but for two weeks in the middle we took an amazing trip. Someone blessed us with plane tickets to take our family on a tour of some of the west coast national parks. We are avid about the outdoors and love hiking, so we had planned to try to tackle as many national parks as possible over the next 10-15 years as our kids are growing up. During this trip we got to see Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, King’s Canyon National Park, and Death Valley National Park as well some other sites like the Hoover Dam. We walked or hiked around 100 miles over the 14 days and did over thirty amazing hikes. We saw three bears, a rattlesnake, some free-range donkeys, a roadrunner, and lots of other animals. And we had so many other little blessings on the trip.
One of the bucket list reasons for this trip was because I have always wanted to see a sequoia tree in person. And one of the big spiritual lessons I took away from the trip came from our time with the sequoia trees. You see, sequoia trees only exist in this specific area of California and nowhere else on the planet. There are a lot of reasons for this including climate, elevation, and other things. But one of the other reasons is the wildfires that happen in this region.
Amazingly, God designed sequoia trees to have a sort of symbiotic relationship with wildfires. Some of the oldest and biggest trees you see in the giant forest are as much as 40ft in circumference and over 250ft tall. To get this big, these trees have grown for thousands of years and survived countless fires. God designed the older sequoias to have a special kind of bark and wood that is resistant to fire damage. Also, their branches are way high up, far above any reach of wildfires. So why do they need fire? Well, their pinecones are extremely small compared to the size of the trees, about the size of an egg. And the seeds within the pinecone are even smaller, smaller than many of the other trees in the region. The problem is that the pinecones are so tough and durable that they need the heat of the fire to open them for new tree seeds to be planted. So, sequoia trees need fire to multiply.
I was studying Isaiah 61 during my sabbatical. The beginning of the passage is what Jesus quotes when He starts His ministry, staking His claim as the Messiah. It says that He as the Messiah will “bind up the brokenhearted,” “proclaim freedom for the captives,” and “release from darkness for the prisoners,” and more. It says of the people that He ministers to that “they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” (Isaiah 61:3) This picture stood out to me after seeing the sequoia trees. Jesus wants to build us up into these powerful “oaks of righteousness” that are for the display of His glory and splendor. That is how I felt standing before these monstrous trees, so big that it was hard to capture it. The only feeling you had was the glory of God and finiteness of your life.
But if we are to experience the depth of that, I sensed the Lord pointing me back to the picture of the fire. Remember, sequoia trees need fire to multiply. So many times we try to avoid the “fire” – the pain, the difficulty, the discomfort, etc. But what if that fire is the only way for us to continue to grow?
Friend, no matter what you are going through right now and no matter how destructive it feels, if you turn to Jesus and seek His will in the midst of it, He can turn that destructive “fire” into growth and beauty. It even says in Isaiah 61 that He will “bestow on [us] a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Jesus specializes in bringing beauty out of ashes. So, if you are struggling in some way right now – hold on. Look up! Remember that God will meet you in the midst of any struggle. Not only that but if we submit to Him, He can use that “fire” to help us grow and be even more productive and healthier than ever before. May He grow us all into the “oaks of righteousness” that will bring Him glory!