What’s Stored in Your Reserves?

Out of the blue, a random song popped into my head and, of course, I started singing it—at the top of my lungs. It was a song I learned as a preschooler, a song I hadn’t heard since I was a preschooler.

A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I’ll be a sunbeam for Him.

I sang it with all the gusto of a four-year-old hyped up on Kool-Aid. But then I laughed. “Where did that come from?”

I’ve got all sorts of random stuff stuck in my head. Mind you, it’s nothing that will help me on Jeopardy, but you never know when I might need to recall the phone number of my elementary school friend, Joey. Or the birthdates of all the dogs I’ve had over the years. Maybe our worship leader, Philip, will need me to sing The Sunbeam song one Sunday.

What’s stuck inside of you?

Giant redwood trees are something to behold. Four years ago, lightning caused fires in the Big Basin Redwood State Park in Sanat Cruz. Fires usually don’t faze redwood trees. These big honkin’ trees have a bark that is almost twelve inches thick at the base, and that thick bark contains tannic acids that retard flames. Plus, their branches and needles are normally beyond the reach of flames. So, redwood trees don’t sweat the occasional fire. But not this time. Flames shot high into the tall trees. According to Science.org:

“The fire in 2020 was so intense that even the uppermost branches of many trees burned and their ability to photosynthesize went up in smoke along with their pine needles. Trees photosynthesize to create sugars and other carbohydrates, which provide the energy they need to grow and repair tissue. Trees do store some of this energy, which they can call on during a drought or after a fire.”

Did you catch that? Trees store up energy. But for these redwood trees, the fires and the intensity of the burn was concerning. “It was shocking,” says Drew Peltier, a tree ecophysiologist at Northern Arizona University. “It really seemed like most of the trees were going to die.”

But the trees did survive. The trees pulled on “long-held energy reserves—sugars that had been made from sunlight decades earlier—and poured them into buds that had been lying dormant under the bark for centuries.”

When you’re burned, what reserves do you pull on to get you through? For me personally, I am thankful that in those moments it wasn’t old phone numbers and birthdates I recalled. It was Scripture. When temptation comes knocking, it’s God’s Word that gets me through. When people disrupt my well-laid plans and when everything goes south, it’s Scripture that gets me through.

“This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do” (Josh. 1:8).

“I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11).

“My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life” (Prov. 4:20-23).

When Jesus faced temptation, it was Scripture He called on. Should we do any less?

The fires will come, but God will get you through. And when you have His Word stored in the reserves of your heart, you find strength. You are encouraged both to stand strong and to keep moving.

Preschool songs are cute, but God’s Word is powerful. I think I’ll lean on it instead.

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