O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray. Judges 16:28, NKJV
For the most part, trees mind their own business and just stand there in the same spot year after year. About the only way you can tell they are growing is if you have photographs from the past. But comparison will surprise you with how much the tree has matured.
Most of the cells in trees are the dead water-conducting cells of xylem that’s what wood largely is. As the tree develops, cells in the center of the stem cease to function, because the continuous steams of water will have been broken. Only the last several annual rings of xylem preserve an unbroken stream of water to conduct nutrients up the trunk. After any break in the water pathway (be it from insect damage, air embolism, or winter freezing) the cells are unable to reestablish the continuous water pathway. The problem is that retired xylem cells are hollow cavities. Moist and dark are preferred conditions for fungi, bacteria, carpenter ants, millipedes, and other things looking for food and housing. Growing trees produce a large number of products. Many manufacture resins, waxes, and terpenes. Some of them are waste products of photosynthesis, and some are even highly toxic to other life-forms. Many are water-resistant, hard, and durable. In any case, some trees will routinely send such products to the center of the tree, where they get deposited in the empty cavities of the xylem cells. As axial tissue in the center of the tree fills up with them, the color changes along with the density of the wood, both of which help us to see the difference between heartwood and sapwood. Sapwood actively conducts while heartwood can strengthen a tree. That heartwood isn’t always protected from decay is shown by the fact that the center of a tree may rot out completely with no evidence on the outside. From all appearances, it is still a healthy tree.
When storm-tested, however, a hollow tree will generally break first, since it simply isn’t as strong as the one with a solid heartwood core. It makes me wonder what the core of my walk with Jesus is like. Do I have a prayer life that draws strength from my source of life? Do I spend time in the Word storing up protective scriptures?
Lord of the highest heavens, protect my heart from the rot and decay of this world. Strengthen me to withstand the storms of life.