Palm Trees

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree..." -Psalm 92:12

How meaningless this statement is by the psalmist, unless you are acquainted with palm trees. People who live in tropical and semitropical areas are so familiar with their graceful towering beauty, they are a very common tree to them. But I am sure that few realize what meanings the characteristics of this stately tree have.

The first simile is life. The life of the tree comes through its center or heart. Just as all the other trees, it draws its moisture up through its roots from the earth. But instead of the sap going up on the outside between the bark and the wood of the tree, and so on up into the branches and twigs, as is true in most other trees, in the palm tree the sap goes up the very heart of the tree.

Most trees can be killed by simply severing the bark completely around the tree about an inch or two. The life of the palm, however, does not lie so close under the surface, and is not affected by surface injury. It must be completely cut off to be killed.

The same applies to "palm-tree Christians." The Word of God states this so aptly in Romans 10:10, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." A "palm-tree Christian" is not affected by outward environment, but draws his life and strength through the heart.

The palm tree is perennially green. Life flows within its being continually. Those who are considered "palm-tree Christians" never change. They are the same vibrant witnesses of God's grace day in and day out, because Jesus Christ Himself is "the same yesterday, today and forever."

It is impossible to graft a palm tree into another palm tree. It will die. This is a unique characteristic for "palm-tree Christians" as well. "No man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24). There is but one God and Him only shalt thou serve.
--Selected from Streams in the Desert II