Last week we were camping in the mountains, and I came across the most crazy-looking aspen tree. From a distance, it looked completely normal, healthy and thriving. The leaves were green and plentiful, and it was even supporting a smaller aspen growing up with it. I walked right up to the river bank on which it was growing, looked over the edge and was stunned by what I saw. Below the aspen tree, it’s roots were suspended in the air as it grew out of the bank and looked like it was almost floating. I couldn’t understand how it could continue to thrive when the base of it looked so precarious.

Of course, this got me thinking about how this relates to people, because God often teaches me about people through nature. First, we never know what is going on in people’s lives, but we often judge and compare based on the externals. I can’t tell you how many times I have to tell myself how little I know rather than jumping to conclusions about what looks perfect or compare-worthy on the outside. We don’t know what a person’s root system looks like, and sometimes make judgements without understanding.

Second, I know God is teaching me so much about His perspective versus mine when it comes to my circumstances. I look at that tree and tell it that it should probably give up based on the root system being suspended in the air! But it wasn’t, and even more so, it was living as if it was perfectly rooted and supported by the dirt. Yet, based on what I know about aspen tree root systems, it was actually being supported by all the other aspen trees around it by being joined together underground.