We Are Pando

The world’s largest organism (though a tad disputed) isn’t a whale or some mythical monsters swimming around a Loch…it’s actually much much larger…spanning 106 acres and having over 40,000 arms. It’s a monstrous grove of Aspen trees in Utah called Pando. To the untrained eye, it looks likes like innumerable individual trees all hanging out together like middle-aged men in the Lowe’s tool aisle. But in reality these aspens have an interconnected root system and all stem from the same individual ancestor. I think there are some really amazing parallels that can help us better understand and appreciate The Church

Interconnected

Shockingly, all the roots of Pando somehow connected every tree to every tree. They stem to and from one another so that they can help feed and be fed as ONE.

For us, every believer is connected to every believer. We need each other, feed each other and are fed by each other. Every believer from around the globe all connect to one another by the person and power of the Holy Spirit. I can meet a believer from a different country and not share language, appearance, culture, gender, age etc, but have infinitely more in common with her than a person that lives next door to me that isn’t a believer. I would shard the ultimate DNA with her rather than all the sub-dna’s that stem from this world.

Ephesians 2:22
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Better Together

Each individual aspen tree is remarkably beautiful. Their intricate white and fragile bark; their leaves that, when the Fall comes, seem to be fully electrified. But what is better than an aspen tree is a grove of aspen trees. My goodness. Compare one dolphin to a “superpod of dolphins“; compare one brick to The Great Wall of China. Now compare one aspen to 40,000+!

The Church is the same. Each individual child of God is beautiful, valuable and a stunning representative of the Image of God. But all together we are remarkable. This is one of the reasons why Jesus says that us being ONE is a shockingly valuable and instrumental tool for others to believe in the One True God (because it is so counter-cultural):

John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Fruitful

Ok, so Aspens aren’t fruit trees. However, they are incredibly useful. We can’t even begin to understand how much nourishment and protection Pando gives to the wildlife around them, from shade to richer soil to branches for bird nests.

Likewise, We The Church are designed not just for ourselves but to serve those around us. Our very existence is primarily to glorify God, and one of the essentials ways we do that is to sacrificially love others around us, both inside and outside the church without exception.

Matthew 13:31-32
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Resilient

We don’t know how old Pando is, but we are sure that it is many thousands of years old. And the reason is that it is extremely resilient. When forest fires sweep through the Rockies, the conifers (that are not interconnected) get burned up and die. Aspen groves burn above the ground, but their roots stay alive and intact, regrowing after the fire is over, sending up aspen shoots in an act of defiance.

The Church is the same. We have the power of the Holy Spirit that is alive and active inside us, holding us through the storm, fire and drought. He holds us up when we are thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3); sawed in two (Hebrews 11); exiled to a foreign land (1 Chron 9:1); and murdered on a cross. The church cannot be killed. We will only grow stronger, wider and more fruitful. We individuals will all die and go to our Creator, but The Church cannot be overcome.

Romans 8:37-39
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Multiplication

Sadly some experts think that Pando is either dying or at least stagnant. Normally it perpetually produces new aspen shoots constantly, relentlessly expanding it’s Aspen Kingdom.

The Church is even more. Though many lament how the U.S. is now “Post-Christian”, the reality is that The Church is always expanding. We believers are called and empowered to produce “shoots” through evangelism our whole lives. Though countries and cultures will waver in spiritual allegiances, the Lord came to make and save a people that are his very own; and these people are a contagious virus, offering the sap that brings everlasting love and life as we leave gospel footprints with every step we take.

Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
[ the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

One Seed

Finally and most importantly, Pando can trace it’s very existence back to ONE ASPEN. Every aspen in Pando is part of macro “Clonal Colony” that all share identical genetic markers.

The Church is the exact same.

Romans 5:17
For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

We are all made beautiful and valuable as image-bearers of God Himself. We all carry the same genetic markers. These genetic markers were shattered in Adam, making us children of sin and death. But God wasn’t done with us. The fire of evil would not burn us all down. Instead, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1).

Jesus himself has become our One Seed, sending up shoots all over the planet to bring him glory and fruit. He was destroyed on the cross by the fire-of-evil that we produced so that, through the immortal roots of the Holy Spirit, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28)

John 12:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

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