The sky was overcast in shades of cigar smoke grays and melted vanilla ice cream beige this morning. When I walked Penelope, Mother Nature was pouring rain from her little watering can. The sun was hidden, sleeping late under her cloud covers. The birds were all over my yard, flitting from feeder to feeder joining their songs with the raindrop symphony dripping from the old oak trees.

Took Penelope to vet brother for a checkup after our walk. She’s got a croupy cough. He’s so kind to her. She got a shot, an antibiotic, and got her toenails cut. She loves to go to his clinic. When I say, “Go to the car,” she happily runs to the car door knowing she’s going to see her friends at the clinic. She loves the smells from the cattle sale barn across the street, holds her nose high in the air and investigates the scents, dances around excitedly when we go through the clinic door.

After we got home, I pondered the day away in my reading chair staring out the windows at the bamboo forest in my back yard, thinking how strong and resilient the bamboo canes are. They were beautiful in the snow, bent in prayer like angels with snowy feathers. Several cardinals are sitting on the slender bamboo branches enjoying a carnival ride when the wind blows. The bamboo remind me of Christian faith, the ability to withstand challenges, trusting in God to give us the strength to put down deep roots of faith, learning to bend like the bamboo when life is challenging.

Bamboo is associated with resilience, strength, and growth. The bamboo have extensive root systems underground and quickly shoot up, their canes strong and flexible. Through our prayers and Bible studies our faith grows deep roots, helping us adapt to withstand challenges and persevere when life is hard. The more we trust God the deeper our faith grows, our spiritual roots anchored in God’s grace.

The bamboo are symbols of longevity. The canes are durable and flexible, standing tall and staying green all year, bending in the rain and snow, standing erect when the sun shines and the storms are over. Their leaves are long and elegant, a graceful nod to beauty. Bamboo take life as it comes, bending when days are heavy, standing tall when the darkness passes. As Christians we should stand tall in our faith, bending with trials and tribulations, knowing God’s love will push us back up when the stormy weather passes. He will bring the light back to dark days.

In the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, the guardian angel Clarence Odbody says, “Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole doesn’t he?” I’ve never seen a bamboo growing alone. The canes always grow close and gathered together, getting strength by their numbers. They stand shoulder to shoulder, help each other stand tall, adapting to any circumstance. We can learn, from the bamboo’s ability to thrive in various conditions, the value of adapting to life’s challenges.

We can have a profound impact in the world if we travel through life as a Christian. We can touch people through our witness of kindness and compassion. We never know the power of a loving smile or a warm hug. When someone’s life is in turmoil we can help lift their burdens through our prayers. With our faith we can stand tall, bending through the storm’s wind. “The wind does not break a tree that bends. Be as strong as iron when you must, but never inflexible,” Christa Wick.

Job 14:7 reads, “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.” Let us have deep roots of faith in our lives so that we always find a measure of hope in the mist of despair.

“Be like a bamboo, the taller you grow, the deeper you bow.” — Chinese Proverb