Who is Your 'Nurse Log'?

- nurse log supporting the growth of a new tree - 

This summer, my husband and I paid a bucket-list visit to Olympic National Park in Washington State. Walking through the cool, quiet forests of the park, amongst many stunning sights, you can't help but notice the fallen goliaths lying all around - trees that once proudly brushed against the heavens, now humbly resting on the forest floor. Upon closer inspection of these sleeping giants, you can clearly see little seedlings of new trees now sprouting up out of their fallen comrades - the death of one living thing springing forth the life of another. In this way, the dead tree, now sweetly named a "nurse log," lives on through the new trees it is supporting.

I couldn't help but be taken aback by the picture these nurse logs paint of the Gospel. Of course, as they all tend to do, the analogy falls apart at some point, but to an extent, the nurse log is just one more clear example of Christ that God uses to display His love for us in nature (I love it when He does that! The pictures of His grace are everywhere, if you really look. Rom. 1:20).

Like Christ, this nurse log once reached the heights of heaven, glorious in splendor. Like Christ, it humbly descended to the earth, ultimately dying so that others might live. Like Christ, now all that are firmly planted in it can have new life. 

But here is where the analogy breaks down - because those new trees that have begun their lives on the back of the nurse log will ultimately die themselves. 

But those who are rooted in the evergreen life of Christ:

• are made alive forever in Him through faith in the saving work He has done on the cross (Eph. 2:4-6),
• experience the abundant life now on earth and the fullness of joy that can only come through having one's identity established in Him (John 10:10; 15:4),
• are given strength and support that will never decay beneath them (Matt. 7:24-27).

Where is your life rooted? Are you trying your best to anchor yourself in your own strength to the shifting soil of this life? Are you attaching yourself to a different "false comforter" who promises to support you, but is ultimately as feeble as any of us? Or are you firmly planted in the true Tree of Life - Jesus Christ - Who will never leave you nor forsake you, Who alone can offer life abundantly now and eternally in the future? 

May we be firmly planted in the evergreen life of Christ alone.