“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Phil. 3:10 KJV

Here in the South people come from all over to marvel at the live oak trees draped in Spanish moss. Many are surprised to find that the trees are often covered in a type of fern commonly called resurrection fern. Like the Spanish moss, it is not a parasitic plant but one that gets its nutrients from the air, rain, water and the debris accumulated around the plant. It can live on other types of trees and stumps but it seems to like the live oak best. It relies on the oak for support, not for survival. It is so named because the fern is highly resistant to dry spells and droughts (which can be frequent here in the summer months) and during these dry seasons it will shrivel and turn brown to conserve itself. With any passing shower or period of rain, the moss will quickly turn bright green and lush all over again, giving it the appearance of being resurrected from the dead. This relationship between the fern and the oak is beneficial to the environment also, as it provides a habitat for a variety of insects, birds and animals.

Recently we had a few days of rain (tropical storm and the threat of flooding) that caused me to look at these plants once again. A limb covered in ferns fell from one of our stately oaks at the driveway entry. There was no damage to property and as I examined it, I was thinking like so many that the limb became weak from the weight of the ferns and the rain. My thoughts in looking at it and in terms of what could I say about it was leaning more towards the dangers of toxic relationships, until I did my research. Then, I saw it in a completely different way. The limb was old, rotted and heavily pecked by birds and insects. That was what made the limb eventually fall. Upon examining it, and with research in hand, I realized that the ferns were probably what helped the limb to hang on for as long as it did. That got me thinking about our relationship with Christ.

Paul was a man who endured greatly for the Gospel. Beaten, whipped, stoned, left for dead, imprisoned and eventually shipwrecked, he lets us have an inside look of what it meant to be Paul even in the dark and dry places where he was routinely rejected for the faith. Paul hinged everything on his understanding of what Jesus endured on the cross and the power of His resurrection. His one sole desire was to know Christ so personally and intimately that they would be barely indiscernibly distinct beings.

If we were to relate it to the oak tree and the fern, to look at it one would wonder if the tree is forming the fern or the fern is forming the oak. I think it goes either way. In Paul’s dry places, he would be like the fern, looking dried and shriveled but supported by the oak, refreshed by the resurrection power of Christ. But also when the load seemed to be too much and he would be perfectly happy to die and be with Jesus, he would be the old limb on a tree and the fern would be the thing that gave him the wherewithal to continue on his mission. The relationship he had with the resurrected Christ was intertwined with his spirit, much like the relationship between the oak and the fern. Eventually his body would give out, but the resurrection power would lift him to his eternal home.

Paul wanted everyone to have this same kind of relationship with Christ and to know that when we are connected to the resurrected Christ, that power would be in us to endure the storms, the droughts, the dry places that will cause us to wilt, curl and look dead. That power can resurrect us here in our daily lives and ultimately in our eternal life.