Sunday, August 07, 2005

Trees, Roots, Crowns

A colleague once mentioned to me, the crown of a tree is proportional to the volume of soil available for the root to grow, that is, one cannot expect a huge crown if the soil volume is limited. (So never expect a tree to develop a huge crown if it is in a pot, the size of the pot normally reflects the eventual size of the crown of the tree.) This was to me a very interesting discovery.

Most of the times, we only have a very superficial understanding of what we see, be it a newspaper report or a rumor, and tend to formulate our own subjective opinions from that. (I often fall into this, forming my own bias opinion.) For example, I may see a wealthy person, or someone who has a wonderful family or career, but I tend not to see the journey taken in the dark, in the closet, to reach where he or she is, instead I jump to my own conclusion. The truth is, that person may have gone through several failures before he reaches the success he has in his business. Or she may have cried several nights for her husband who was given to much wine and yet stayed with him through thick and thin, until her husband finally turned around and was touched and changed, before she has a blessed family now. Or another may have gone through dreams being dashed, and yet without losing hope in Him who is able to deliver her, and now able to stand strong and have a wonderful career. Yet how many of us bother to search out the truth behind someone else’s story, for most of time, we are pretty self-centered?

What am I driving at? Staying in the northern part of Singapore, I travel along Upper Thomson Road on several occasions, and there is this stretch of well shaded road with beautiful rain trees lined on 2 sides, which looks as if there are 2 rows of soldiers holding up their swords to welcome me like I am a royalty. (This is how I feel every time I travel along this road, so honored, and overwhelmed.) Yet for the trees to develop to such beautiful huge crowns, it takes several years, most of us would know. However, there is one thing that we never bother to find out, the depth of the roots of those huge trees. Huge trees would normally have deep roots. We only see the beauty above, but we do not look beneath the soil, at the roots. This is so like life itself. Somehow, I believe if one day, Papa God is to show us the journey in our lives, how He arranged events and paths to meet, and how accidental they may seem now, we would be extremely surprised, grateful and touched by what He has done.

Anyway, food for thought, pardon my babbling, not sure if you understand what I am trying to express here. This is just a recent thought, which I am not sure how to explain it, but still hope you can made out some sense of what I am trying to express.

Finally, just to give a short summary of how things turn out for me this past week. I was really, extremely busy. Yet Papa God has proved to me His faithfulness again. The presentation was changed from Wednesday to Friday, and the presentation materials were completed on time. Another good piece of news is my boss intends to take one project away from me (making it about 4 to 5 projects now). Not only that, he is also getting another assistant for me! How things turn out for our good! Praise God, my Jesus is surely faithful, although many times I am not sure how He is going to solve the problems at that very moment, yet He sure knows the way to do it and never fails! Isn’t He great and wonderful? Thanks to all you pals out there who have said a prayer for me too during this short, trying moment.

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