Slowly

If you ever decide to go into the woods to watch pine trees grow, be sure to take a comfortable chair.  A very comfortable chair.  It occurred to me this morning as I was driving down one of those country roads with planted pine trees rowed up on both sides that creation is not in a hurry.  A tree farmer must have all kinds of patience as it takes somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty or twenty-five years to grow a crop.  Nothing about creation speaks of being in a hurry.

 

Our children take nine months to be birthed after conception.  The same is true of the cows out in the pasture.  Plant a seed in the garden and it will take a couple of months to produce fruit.  And even before the seed is able to germinate, the soil has to slowly reach a warm growing temperature after the onslaught of winter weather.  Everything takes time.  Everything has its season.  Nothing gets in a hurry.  It just does and grows as it is supposed to do.  My morning lesson told me pine trees do not grow in a hurry.  Neither does anything else which is a part of creation.  Everything moves slowly.

 

Of course, there is always an exception.  The one part of creation which does not abide by the rule of moving slow is the human species.  People like you and me always seem to be in a hurry.  We have trouble being in the here and now, the present, because our eyes are always casting looks toward tomorrow and what is in the future.  Hurrying seems to be our middle name.  It makes you wonder if part of our problem with living is that we are out of step with the creation the Creator God has put all around us.  We are blessed with a privileged place in the creation, but, strangely enough, live out of rhythm with every part it.  Creation says "Slow, let it come," but we never do.