The Willow and the Aspen

Many years ago in Vicotria, there was a garden dominated by a weeping willow. The branches drooped in a giant circle. The leaves were fine tipped and gave the tree the appearance of finely spun lace. The children of the family loved to play on the soft grass under the tree, especially in the heat of summer.

At first to their surprise, and then their disgust, they discovered that every year these long ugly shoots with large round leaves would grow from the trunk. They were aspen leaves. This was puzzling to them. Aspen leaves on a willow?

The mystery was solved when the old gardener explained that years ago a weeping willow shoot had been grafted into an Aspen sapling. In time the Willow overcame the Aspen until all the branches were willow. However, each spring Aspen shoots would grow from the trunk below where the graft had occurred. The children would indignantly pull them off, because if they left them there, they would spoil the whole appearance of the willow.

The Willow and the Aspen are like the two natures that a born-again Christian has. One must dominate. We said once before, the old nature will always be resident, but it does not need to be president. Many expect all the conflict to cease at conversion, but it is not so. Infant mortality is tragic in life, and just as tragic in spiritual life. Jesus spoke of it in the parable of the four soils (Matthew 13:1-23). Many a newborn soul dies a few months after conversion because they do not understand this simple but important truth. Conversion does not cancel the struggle, but it does give us “unlimited resources” with which to fight the war.

Consider these words that Paul wrote to the Ephesians from his incarceration in a Roman prison: “When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Eph 3:14-20 NLT)

The Christian is not destined to live with a constant civil war raging within us. Yes, we will have two natures until the end, and every now and then, like a bus going down the road, the old one will stick its head out the window. Ask yourself tomorrow in everything you do, “which nature will it feed,” because the one you feed is the one that will rule.

God’s part is to implant the new nature, which is the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is the miracle of rebirth and Peter declared at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit is promised unconditionally to every believer in Christ (Acts 2:38-39). God’s part is to plant the new nature within us, our part is to feed it.

So why do we experience so much conflict? Why is the civil war still raging after years of being a Christian. It is because we feed both natures just enough to keep both alive. Some people have just enough of Christ in the life to produce conflict and not enough to produce control. Therefore, they do not know the joy of being a Christian who has peace. This is a dangerous and discouraging practice. Just enough of Christ in the life to make living in the world an embarrassing conflict, and just enough of the world in the life to make living with Christ uncomfortable.

Remember those signs about speeding you see on the road “stop it or cop it!”  What a great spiritual message. How quickly we would drop the bifurcated life when we find the joy and peace of living with Christ. The secret of being ready to meet Christ is to feed that which He plants within you.

A camel can drink enough at one session to last it a long time. We try to be camel hump Christians by surviving on long gaps between drinking. When Lot went to live in wicked Sodom, amid unbelief and immorality, his faith grew dim. The encouraging message is that God still saved him! Yet is that us – too much contact with Sodom and our faith has grown dim?

The principle can apply to marriage as well. Many a marriage is destroyed or handicapped because there are too many other things. And so, we have miserable, camel hump marriages. This is the same handicap we place on our spiritual lives.

The two most important things in life: 1) Our Christian experience that gives us the hope that is to come, and 2) Our marriage, that should be a foretaste of heaven. One will bring you happiness here and the other happiness for eternity.