Hidden Hills, California — a lovely, guard gated horse community of country style estates and beautiful old California oak, pine and numerous other maturely grown trees.  Imagine a freshly paved country road with a blend of dirt side-walks, pitch black nights with no street lamps, and of course horse loving, trail-riding residents, who at the least sign of any encumbrance onto the horse trails, will sound the alarm creating what amounts to a national emergency.

Following a wonderful Sunday morning worship service, I return home to my lovely community — aglow with peace, tranquility and relaxation.  This however was short lived as I was greeted by the security guard who shared he had received several complaints that there was a leak on the horse trails believed to be originating from my property.  And as soon as I entered my home the phone rang with a call from… a neighbor (ugh!!).

She was nice enough, but let’s face it, I was certainly not in the mood for hanging out in the dirt!  But, I met the neighbor outside in order to try and resolve the problem.

Despite all our efforts, nothing could be seen with the naked eye but a shut-off valve in the vicinity of where we assumed the problem was emanating. Shutting it off appeared to stop the flow of water onto the trails.

The following day, my gardener came to assess the situation and determined that he would need to dig 4-5 feet underground to expose the problem.  In the case of the leak it turned out to be the root of a puny little, newly grown pine tree.  The water-seeking roots had grown into the area of the valve piping breaking the coupling which held two pipes together, causing an underground leak.

So, as the gardener’s workman diligently worked to remove the root, I could see he sawed in an intense fashion.  This caused my son and I to approach the hole with curiosity to see what in the world was taking so much effort to saw.  To both our surprise, we uttered, “The root is bigger than the tree!” This sheds visual light on the passage, “having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith…(Colossians 2:7a NASB)” ~ doesn’t it?

As with life, in order to get to the root of a problem, inevitably we must dig deep into areas not easily seen with the naked eye.  But God can, and does  speak to us through some of the most mundane — and dare I say — annoying events in our lives.  Experience the further revelation of the ‘root’ found in Part III of The Puny Tree.