Doing Care Work Like a Bamboo

(1st article in a series)

          Growing up in the Philippines, I noticed that most of the homes are either made of bamboo or wood. These are the most affordable materials for constructing homes. Bamboo is a weed and not a tree.

But, even if they are members of the lowly weeds, they only grow straight up. They never bend or go sideward. Trees used for lumber can be challenging. They can be so crooked or bent as they hit the sawmill even in their splendor of foliage, flowers, fruits and branches.

My Lord Jesus is the only bamboo-like lowly and yet perfectly righteous ministry person I know. I can never be a straight-up bamboo-like caregiver. My flaws and failures are there, those dark contrasting colors in the painting of my life.

Yet, I can be His planting in the context of where I serve: an “oak of righteousness”. Isaiah speaks about “Bamboo Jesus” in Isaiah 61:1-2 and then says this in verse 3: “…giving them a headdress instead of ashes, the oil of rejoicing instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So, they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may show forth His beautiful glory.”

I can never do care work like bamboo, but I am an oak of righteousness planted by The Bamboo Weed and serving like Him.

+ Pastor Sanny Olojan

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