Of Squash and Oak Trees

I’ve heard it said that when God wants to make a squash, he takes six months. But when God wants to make an oak, he takes 60 years. (There have been other variations on this theme, but you get the point). I would add that when God wants to make the majestic Sequoia, he takes 5 centuries.

And when it comes to his image-bearers, God takes a lifetime. I’m going to make a confession here: I really thought that by the time I turned 50 I was going to have my act together; I somehow figured that was the age I would be a calm, serene, mature Christian woman. So, it was kind of a shock when my 50’s turned out to be one of the messiest decades of my life. But it has also been a decade of growth.

I think that’s why I love Moses so much. Moses’ entire story can be read in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy, but the martyr Stephen gives us a good summary in Acts 7:17-24. Born to a Hebrew woman who was supposed to kill him immediately, Moses’ was hidden until he was discovered by Pharoah’s daughter, who adopted him and raised him in a life of privilege and luxury in Pharoah’s palace. But when he became an adult, Moses murdered an Egyptian and was forced to go on the run. For the next 40 years Moses lived an obscure life, tending sheep and fathering two sons before God commissioned him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. If you do the math, God spent 80 years developing Moses into the kind of person who could lead the Israelites! So maybe it’s okay that I wasn’t perfectly sanctified by my 50^th birthday.

We want change to happen now. And our culture reinforces this thinking by making nearly everything quick, convenient, and largely effortless. As I look back, I remember so many New Year Day’s spent writing down the same goals—read the Bible every day, pray more, eat better, spend less, walk more…and never once did I end the year having mastered a single one of those goals. It felt like I never made any progress at all. And honestly, I still fail miserably with those same goals.

But, I have grown. I have finally realized that the Christian life is not so much a task to get “right,” but a relationship with God to cultivate. And with that insight, I find myself wanting to spend more time in the Bible and prayer. I’m finding myself slightly less self-centered than I used to be. I love others just a bit better than I used to.

Don’t give up if it feels like you’re not growing. God is developing you into someone who is fit for his purposes in this world, and cultivating a deeply rooted and fruitful tree just takes a lot longer than growing squash.