These last couple of weeks we have been spending time with our one son before he embarks on the journey of medical school. It has been an enjoyable time. One day, we took our dogs and hiked through the beautiful mountainside of Catoctin Mountain Park.

Hiking along the trail we came across a tree. It had grown in a split fashion due to an adjacent tree falling into the two shoots of the main tree. The park ranger or whomever cleared the fallen tree from the trail must’ve cut it off but not removed the dead tree completely. Consequently the living tree continued to grow but just grew around the approximate two foot branch. It looked like a thorn in the flesh of the tree.

I was struck with the analogy of life. Sometimes for no fault of ours, things fall or land in our growth path. We might have been going along and then, either a storm of life, negligence on someone else’s part, poor maintenance or just an accident- things fall into our path and could potentially take us down.

What I liked about this tree was that the tree just continued on- growing around the offending branch. The “thorn” became part of it. In fact, it distinguishes itself from any other tree in the woods by its scar of the thorn. Of course, the tree cannot remove the fallen branch- there had to be some type of help.

I think of different situations in my life and in the lives of friends and acquaintances. Are we defeated by our thorns or distinguished by them? Does the thorn define us? To set us apart in a good or bad way? Are we growing despite the thorn or are we at a stand-still? Has the thorn stunted our growth or even more tragically, caused our death (spiritually, emotionally, relationally) in some way? All our experiences, whether we acknowledge or not, shape our growth and trajectory.

What about you? Do you have a thorn in your life? How is that impacting how you live? Do you need someone to help you remove the fallen tree, to cut the majority of it out of your life? Can you leave the thorn in place and continue to grow? Is the thorn stifling you?

Which way are you going to go if you have a fork in your tree?

More arduous a trail than expected but our final leg brought us to this stream…