One of Laurel’s best friends was visiting this past weekend. It had been about 5 years since they had seen each other, so they spent most of the time just talking and catching up. But we did do a little sightseeing together. We walked all around the Battery and sat in White Point Garden since it was such a beautiful day (remind me to tell you about the dueling wedding parties we saw!…)
We also drove out to Kiawah to spend some time on the beach. On the way we stopped to see the Angel Oak, which we had not seen before. And I am so glad we did, because it was pretty amazing. Since we are the newbies around here, I am sure most of you have seen it already, but if you haven’t, and you love nature at all… you need to make a trip over there. We have seen the sequoias out in California, and they are incredible, but this very old live oak tree was incredible in its own way. And while many people online were complaining about the crowds when they went to see it, I was just happy to see so many people enjoying it - in comparison to the famous Sycamore Gap tree that vandals cut down in England a couple of weeks ago…
None of my pictures, and none of the pictures I found online due this tree justice. It is just too expansive to capture from any one angle. At the base of the tree there was a 2-foot-tall sapling of a live oak that had been planted in a bucket in 2018 just to give a comparison. It has taken at least 500 years, but this tree has grown from a seed into a giant whose branches shade an area of 17,200 square feet! I immediately thought about our parable from a couple of weeks ago…
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32
Wherever the King is at work - wherever God is being God - this kind of amazing and miraculous growth is sure. That includes each one of our hearts as we seek after him, and that includes ICC, as we diligently and deliberately work to do his will. My prayer is always that we will believe this truth - that growth is sure, that we will press on in obedience, and that we will then wait expectantly for the blessing and growth to come! I hope that you will join me in that hope and that prayer in the days ahead. And I hope you get out to see the Angel Oak!
Praying for you all!
Pastor Aaron
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