Gò0dNews for Everyone
Pine Cones
H
by Jennifer Cobb
ave you ever noticed a pine cone?
when they need to be fully protected. Pine cones
Well, of course you have! Have you
open up to let their seeds be eaten or released to
ever actually closely examined it or
grow more pine trees in the future. During the
thought of the properties it possesses? I will
historic COVID-19 events, grocery stores tried
spare you the details of the scientific name of
to keep certain things on shelves for weeks,
a pine cone and which tree it obviously comes
even though items continued to run out quickly.
from. Instead, I want to focus on the seeds
Were people scared? Yes. But I believe that it
that lie within the pine cone. I have always
was not so much about being fully scared as
had a beautiful fascination with nature, and
it was about being unprepared to face one of our greatest
trees and items that come from trees are
fears—the fear of not
my favorite. If you are walking on a
being able to protect our
hot spring day (thanks, Georgia), you will notice that most pine
“seed”: our children, our
cones are opened; you would
parents, or our closest
be able to stick your finger
friends and family. That time really
in between the spaces of the actual cone. But if you
showed us that we are
were out walking after
not in control: that God
a rain, or on a cold day,
is fully in control. I
the spaces would be
do not want to debate
closed, through which
on what went right
you would not be able
or wrong during the events; I just know that
to poke your finger, and it
this metaphor helped me
would be quite prickly to the
through a tough time of
touch. Pine cones bear seeds, much
uncertainty. If God is the pine
like a lot of things in nature. During our whole quarantine situation as a
tree, we are the pine cones, and the people we
nation, pine cones came to mind. I know that
love are the seeds. He just wants us to flourish.
sounds really odd, but go with it for a second.
In times of trouble, isn’t that what Christians
Pine cones close up and protect their seeds
are meant to do?
40 // May 2020
