Bamboo

I recently gave a sermon on the topic “I Am Amazed.” The sermon focused on God’s magnificent creation—especially plants, animals, and nature—and how this creation brings me closer to God and inspires me to praise God, the Creator. One of the examples I wanted to use was “bamboo.” My initial plan was therefore to bring a bamboo shoot—one that had just sprouted this year (we have plenty of them in our garden)—as a practical, live visual aid. However, as the day of the sermon drew nearer, my husband and I realized that it would be very difficult to transport such a shoot by car for kilometers, since it was more than 6 meters long. So we decided to shoot a short video instead. So off to the garden we went, cut off the shoot, got the camera and drone ready, and now it was my job to hold the shoot steady so that the scale would be visible in the video (see video below). That, however, wasn’t as easy as it looks, because I’m not exactly strong, the wind was blowing quite hard, and I had my work cut out for me holding the visual aid steady.

So I find myself wondering: How is it that bamboo is very rarely blown over, even during the strongest storms (in stark contrast to some giant trees, which simply fall over during strong storms)?

Bamboo has a unique combination of elasticity and stability that allows it to bend in strong winds. It doesn’t offer direct resistance during a storm but instead bends with the wind. It also has an extremely dense root system that branches out widely, anchoring the plant rock-solid in the ground.

In storms, I often react more like a tree that fights with all its might to stay upright, rather than first accepting difficult situations and seeing where the “storm” takes me. As a result, I burn out quickly, become tense, and often end up achieving exactly the opposite. I am explicitly not talking here about situations in life where it’s important to put up a stand and not let the wind dictate my course. No, I’m talking about crises and difficulties that hit me like a “storm” and in which it’s important to first accept them so that I can respond with a certain degree of composed calm. If, on top of that, my root system isn’t particularly strong, I fall over like a matchstick. There have been more than a few situations in my life that wouldn’t have turned out well without strong support from family and friends and without faith in a God whom I know has the big picture.

So I can learn a lot from bamboo: not resistance, but acceptance—and developing a strong “root system” right now to serve as a foundation.