What kind of tree am I?

I can’t really call myself an outdoorsman – I’ve never been too big on hunting or fishing or camping – but whenever I get some free time and the weather’s nice, I do like getting out in the woods. I just like being out there away from all the noise and bustle of civilization. No specific purpose or agenda is needed beyond just enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of nature.

And Land Between the Lakes is one of my favorite places to indulge that impulse. Only about 30 minutes up the road from where I live, it’s got miles and miles of hiking trails that wind through some fairly vast, wild, and rugged country.

One area of the park I have frequented over the years is a place called Boswell Landing – a picturesque spot fronting one of the many inlets to be found along the park’s western shoreline. It’s got a boat dock, campsites, several old stone picnic tables, and (most important to me) an intricate system of hiking trails right there in the neighborhood.

With a coveted day off this past Saturday, I hopped in my all-terrain Prius and headed out for Boswell Landing to do a little day hiking. But shortly after hanging a left on the curvy road that snakes down to the landing, it became apparent that things were not as I remembered them.

At first I started noticing some fallen trees (much more than usual) along the roadside. Then I turned a curve and was shocked and astounded by what I saw. On both sides of the road was a wide swath of destruction (maybe half a mile wide) running as far as the eye could see in a roughly west-to-east direction.

Honestly, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Everywhere I looked there were damaged and destroyed trees – hundreds and hundreds of trees, uprooted, broken or twisted in half, piled up on each other and scattered about as if an army of angry giants had come stomping and kicking their way through the woods.

But here and there, sticking up out of all that carnage, were trees that were still standing, though many of those had been stripped of bark and limbs.

Almost immediately I understood that this was the aftermath of a tornado – most likely one of those that roared through the area during the big outbreak back in December and maybe even the same twister that hit Dresden and then cut across Henry County.

And it must have been a real monster when it rampaged through that part of the park. I have seen and taken pictures of quite a bit of tornado damage over the years, but I’ve never seen devastation on that scale before, not in person anyway.

I kick myself that I didn’t have my camera with me or I would show you what it looked like, but I’m sure it’s all still there if you want to go out and see it for yourself.

Quite a few people had obviously been busy clearing the roadway with chainsaws and bigger equipment, so I drove on down to a trailhead I knew and then hiked my way back to get a closer look. Eventually I came to a place where I just couldn’t go any further and the trail disappeared entirely under all the debris.

But, oddly, for the next hour or two, I found myself picking my way along the outer edge of the destruction like an addled soldier wandering through a corpse-littered field after a bloody battle – and I must admit that seeing all those fallen trees up close, some of them proud old giants that had stood for decades or centuries, affected me in a way I can’t quite explain.

Eventually, I made my way back to the road, back to my car, and then back home.

Interestingly, the lesson that next morning at Sunday School focused on how God and our faith in Him will see us through the storms of life – and I couldn’t help thinking about all those trees, both those that had fallen and those that remained standing, and wondering what had made the difference between them. Was it just the random chaos of the whirlwind? Or did it have something to do with how deeply and securely each tree was rooted?

And that led me to questions of a deeper, more personal nature.

What kind of tree am I? How deeply and securely am I rooted? Have I put down the roots of my life in good soil and solid ground? And how well will I stand up amidst those storms that are most assuredly coming?

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