Acorns can sprout if left unchecked.
I recently discovered a tiny oak tree growing in the gutters on my house. I was mortified. How could that happen? Clearly, we needed to clean our gutters, but the leaves haven’t dropped yet and we are surrounded by oak trees, so to clean them right now, would just be an exercise in futility. They will quickly refill.
There are acorns everywhere at the moment. We crunch them with our tires in the driveway and beneath our feet when we walk in the yard. They are small nuggets that don’t seem capable of much of anything, yet they are.
Under the right conditions, they can become a mighty oak tree and create wonderful shade or create all kinds of havoc, depending on your perspective.
As I pondered my gutter situation and how the sprouts seemed to have happened overnight, I had to admit that they didn’t. Those acorns had been in that gutter for a while, unseen but growing a little bigger with every passing day.
I was reminded how we can let unwanted things take root in our spiritual lives as well, if we aren’t careful. A little disagreement can grow into something huge if we don’t resolve it quickly. Hurt feelings can balloon into lasting anger if we don’t deal with them. Careless words can leave lasting damage if we aren’t willing to apologize or accept apologies.
All of those scenarios can seem so small in the moment, small like little acorns. Yet, if left alone, they can just keep growing, like acorns do and before long we have an something as big as an actual tree and eventually a mighty one.
Acorns have a purpose just like our hurt feelings and anger do, yet there’s a time and a place that’s ideal for both. The gutters of my house are clearly not an ideal place, neither is deep within our hearts and souls. My gutter sprout reminded me that not only do we need to clean our gutters frequently, we need to clean up our hearts and souls frequently as well.
There’s just not room to let the bad stuff take root. Perhaps you needed reminding today too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂