Pining For You

In "Big Two-Hearted River", Ernest Hemingway pictures his hero, Nick Adams, tramping through a fire-gutted forest, seeking a spot for trout fishing. When Nick gains the edge of the burned-over swath, the first vegetation that greets his eyes is pine trees - jack pines to be exact.

Susan Schmidt of the University of South Carolina commented on this detail in an article that would be found in a past issue of The Hemingway Review. She writes, "Jack pines...are well adapted to fire ecology; in fact, jack pines need fire to be able to re-seed. A forest fire may kill individual trees but the continuation of the forest depends upon periodic fires. Seed cones can stay at the top of the trees as long as twenty-five years waiting for a fire. The extreme heat melts the pine cones so that the seeds can be released." She goes on to describe the custom of French Canadian woodsmen, who used to believe that jack pines poisoned the soil. "No superstitious woodsman would chop down a jack pine, but would burn it to 'kill it', thereby allowing it to re-seed."

All of this makes me think of verses like James 1:3, 4 which tells us that the trying (the Greek word means "to burn") of our faith produces patience which leads to maturity in our Christian walk. From time to time, faith fires crackle across the life of a believer, leaving him with the "burnt-out" feeling so common in our stressful time. We tend to react (or even over react) with sorrow, and we are very quick on the draw to complain to God about the crisis. We should learn our lesson well and be just as quick to realize that the Master Forester knows His business, and He is engaging in some jack pine faith ecology. There are seed cones of faith, talent, prayer, and ministry perched high atop our lives somewhere, and only the fires of trial can release them. An individual blaze may destroy a cherished dream, but it is so vital to the continuation of the Kingdom work as a whole.

So, if you feel burned up, burned out, or just plain burned - glorify God! You and I often only see the tree - But God looks at the pine cones and sees the forest. Even if the enemy (Satan) were to set a blaze in an attempt to destroy you, he did the one thing that assures spiritual survival on your part! Why?  Because the flames of persecution and the blood of the martyrs have always been a driving catalyst in the growth of the church (Read the book of Acts and The Martyr's Mirror).

Pining For You,
Pastor David Blevins