I love lessons from nature. They are like secrets hidden by God for our discovery. Today bamboo is fascinating to me. There are many variations of this fast growing tree and each will grow to its potential according to soil health and weather conditions. What piqued my attention this morning was hearing that for the first four years of the growth of bamboo is very slow. In the first years the growth is happening in the root system—underground. So, a tree with the potential to reach great heights—I mean even 70 to 80 feet, will start very slowly. And then—at the fifth year it can shoot up at a rate of 24 to 36 inches in one day; that is one to one and a half inches per hour!

There is a Chinese saying that, “First bamboo sleeps, then it creeps, then it leaps.”

Things, lives, careers, projects, relationships, enterprises take time to develop and it is hard to see what is happening “under the surface of the ground.” The substantial growth of the fifth year of the bamboo tree is due to the first four years worth of growth and root system development.

How often do we get discouraged too quickly? We can learn a lot from nature.

Are you in a crazy growth period where you or your endeavors are growing at warp speed? Or, are you feeling like nothing may be happening even though your efforts have not ceased? Could it be that you also have something to learn from the bamboo tree? I do.

We need to trust that what is not yet availed to our eyes is growing as it should. We need to keep our faith on the fact that the root system which sustains is being developed according to schedule. We would be insane if we dug up the roots of our “trees” to see what is taking place. Sanity says to the farmer to trust that the seeds and/or bulbs are doing what they are supposed to do in the dark of the soil where they are planted.

I intentionally leave the rest of this train of thought up to you the reader. What does the bamboo tree now speak to you?