The oak forest as a picture of the body of Christ

I read the following in a Reader's Digest article while waiting for Lucy to have her fiddle lesson yesterday. It was in the June/July 2011 issue in an article titled 'The Wisdom of the Oak' by Yelizaveta Renfro. She got the information about oak trees from a book by William Bryant Logan called 'Oak: The Frame of Civilization'. Here is the quote from her article:


"In some forests, Logan writes, oak trees of compatible species graft their roots together and "become one flesh". Through their shared root system, the stronger dominant trees may provide the weaker trees with nutrients. In this way, even the roots of stumps can continue to live and contribute to the forest."

When I read that I can't tell you how thrilled I was, immediately seeing it as a picture of the Body of Christ. If a body of believers is together reaching their roots deep into the soil of Christ's word, their root systems will be grafted together so that each can draw from the soil and from the others so that they are 'one flesh'. That's true communion, being one with Christ and with one another. The weak ones will be just as nourished as the strong ones as they share together.