Sherry Sterling

Dear friends,

I’ve enjoyed the past few days with family in the Pacific Northwest, exploring Olympic National Park. We walked among the tall trees and fern-covered floors of old-growth forests, ribboned with waterfalls and flowing streams.

On hike after hike, I noticed two towering sentinels of the forest often growing near or directly next to each other—Western Red Cedar with its shaggy red bark and Douglas Fir with its chunky deeply grooved bark. Both can live over 1000 years! There were ancient tall Western Hemlock and Sitka Spruce, too, along with the bright green leafed deciduous Maple, Cottonwood, and Alder filling out the forest.

But it was the two cozied up to each other that caught my curiosity.

I’ve learned a bit about their relationship. The Douglas Fir fills in forest canopy openings first, creating shade that the Western Red Cedar trees like. And the warmth provided by low-hanging branches and roots of fir trees is something cedar seedlings respond to, more than exposed areas, so the nearby seedlings take off more than those further away. Add to that the interaction of their different root fungal systems, and they make quite the dynamic duo. They remind me of our desert’s Mesquite as nursery tree to Saguaro cactus.

And I am reminded of the majesty of this creation and wisdom of our Creator. We continue to discover the many interconnections, interdependencies, and intricacies of life. So much that humans could never dream up. And every one of them rooted in the connection and dependency on God.

Today’s New Testament reading reminds us to trust our connection and dependency on God. To trust that God’s got this—all of life, all of the power, ultimately. To trust that the hidden things—both sordid secrets and humble acts—will be made known. To trust God knows and loves us so completely that every hair on our heads is counted. To trust that, if needed, we’ll be given the words to uphold our faith.

We are reminded to re-root and re-orient ourselves in the larger perspective as Children of God, beyond that of Humans of the Earth, or Citizens of a Country, or Members of a Church. 

I am pondering how I root and orient myself. Can I stand there for 1000 years, like the Cedar and Fir?

I am standing still to remember Whose I am.

Peace and Love,

—Sherry