Unexpected Things

I came across this photo from earlier this summer when I was hiking in the mountains of Colorado near my home. I am as astonished now as I was then to happen upon this little tree growing out of this enormous multi-ton rock. Somehow it spoke of unexpected things—big and small. Somehow it suggested supple possibility emerging out of unwavering granite.

I wondered how enough soil had accumulated in the small depression on the top of the boulder to nurture the beginnings of new life. How does one minute seed find itself nested into the raised platform of a seemingly impossible situation and manage to reach skyward in lissome freshness?

My eyes kept returning to that little tree, that fortress of a tree, in the moat of compressed aggregate. My soul was stirred to wonder . . .

A moat is intended to fortify and protect. But for those entrusted moats engulfed in injustice, untruth, abuse, and darkness (and sadly this shows up in many forms and places): families, businesses, schools, places of worship, governments, borders, etc., perhaps there is a patch of grace-filled soil right there in the “impossibility” of things, right there in the heavy ache of emotional and physical pain, right there if only to look a little closer … to flourish goodness and healing.

Thanks for stopping by. ♥