Chinese Bamboo Tree

·        Chinese Bamboo Tree: 

o   You plant it, and nothing much happens except a tiny shoot coming out of the bulb

o   You water, fertilize, and watch, but nothing happens. 

o   You keep watering, and fertilizing, and waiting—4 to 5 years, sometimes even longer—and nothing seems to be happening. 

o   Then, one day, after years of watering and fertilizing, and only if that watering and fertilizing was done regularly and faithfully, you see a little spring of new growth happening. 

o   In the 6 weeks that follow, the Chinese Bamboo tree grows as much as 2 feet per day, until it grows to be ninety feet tall! 

o   In extreme cases, bamboos can grow to be over 150 feet tall!

·        During the first 4-5 years, all the growth is underground in a massive fibrous root structure that spreads deep and wide in the earth, and this is critical.  The outward growth only occurs if the bamboo tree has been properly watered and nourished along the way so that its root system is established.   

·        Many of us give up after a few days, weeks, or month of difficulties and we just don’t see things getting better.  It just doesn’t seem to be worth it at all. 

·        But like a wise gardener who understands the Chinese Bamboo tree and its growing cycle would hang on, knowing that the tree will eventually grow, if they are faithful in caring for it.  And we continue because we know the imperishable, undefilable, and unfading inheritance that awaits those who persevere to the end! 

·        They’ll just keep on watering and fertilizing it, waiting patiently for the day when grow will be visible.