Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Proverbs 27:17 (04/27/23)
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TITLE: A Lesson from the Redwoods | Previous Challenge Entry
By Em Bonja
05/02/23 -
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ADD TO MY FAVORITES
I recall when I first saw them,
California redwoods standing tall.
From afar they had a slender look,
Approaching close—not at all.
Their girth was wide at their base
Shooting sharply toward the sky,
Pointing to the clouds and higher,
Brownish-red to my eye.
I envisioned giant fingernails
Gouged along their rutted bark,
Marking deep-etched furrows
Leaving them forever scarred.
They grew in clumps or clusters,
Sometimes gathering in the round,
Creating a look of communion,
Anchored to the ground.
Their roots are six to twelve feet deep,
I gasped to imagine trees on their sides.
But I read their info sign down further--
It told of roots 100 feet wide.
Those roots had grown to intertwine
Weaving a vast foundation,
United through time and years of growth,
A structure of unbreakable creation.
Each tree receives its needed nurture
Through the roots of all.
Each tree is better due to others
Added to its own potential
People mirror the tree’s connection
As their hearts are bound together.
God forges our firm foundation
So we withstand life’s stormy weather.
But the binding of people in love
Is more than what a tree can do.
We can affect each other’s souls
By planing jagged edges smooth.
Recently I relocated
Uprooted from my entire world.
Left behind the place I fit
Into a void where I was hurled.
New roots begin to spread again
Intertwining rather slowly.
I’m listening and looking,
I’m trusting God will show me.
My edges have become much duller
With no one to smooth them out,
No one to teach and model
And help erase my doubts.
For it is only in community
Our sharpening can be done.
God intends us for each other
Until like Him we become.
Proverbs 27:17: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
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Well done!
God Bless~