My friend Adam makes maple syrup. Well, technically maple trees provide the gallons and gallons of sap that he and his family can transform into syrup.
At the beginning of the season, the first step is to tap the trees. Adam looks at each tree that was previously tapped, considers how much it produced last year, and examines how well it healed. If the tree produced a good amount of sap, and the hole from last year’s tap has completely closed up, it’s a candidate for an additional tap. A tree that bore one or two taps last season is deemed ready to accommodate three or four this time.
As he was explaining the process to me, I realized something. You and me, we’re like maple trees. We are created by God to do good works and produce good fruit…or in this case, sap.
God can take that sap, and with the heat of His love, transform it into something even better than we could produce on our own. If we demonstrate the ability to bear fruit and remain resilient, God will trust us to handle more, allowing us to be even more productive.
I’m reminded of the time Jesus said, “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” -Matthew 13:12
Upon realizing that I am one of God’s maple trees, I wondered if I was a one-tap tree or a multi-tap tree.
What does God see when He examines me? Am I stuck at one tap because I’m quick to complain at the first sign of adversity? Do I fold too easily when I encounter an obstacle? Is my sap production at a trickle because I am distracted by so many other unimportant things? Are there any unhealed wounds that are holding me back from being all God made me to be?
Receiving a tap is traumatic to the tree, but it is necessary for drawing out the useful sap. God uses the pain and suffering we similarly encounter in life. There are many trials the Lord allows into our lives. They can be traumatic, but each one becomes a tap, drawing forth something useful that God can transform into something rich and sweet.
The Saints are examples of multi-tap trees that produced a lot of sweet syrup for the good of God’s Kingdom. How do we become more like them? Another detail Adam shared with me gives us a valuable clue. He’s observed that the trees that heal best and produce the most sap are the ones that have a lot of exposure to the sun.
Turns out that might be the ultimate secret.
The more exposure we have to the Son, aka the Light of the World, the better off we’ll be.
Suffering is part of life and our journey as Christians. We shouldn’t be surprised by trials. Rather than let suffering keep us in the shadow and pull us away from God, we can use it as an occasion to draw closer to His light.
The closer we are to Him, the more we experience His healing and grow in fortitude. The more time we spend in prayer, in the Word, at Mass, and receiving the sacraments, the more sap we produce.
If we are maple trees, may we be multi-tap trees! Let us strive to stay planted in God’s light so that every wound can be a wellspring producing something sweet for His kingdom.
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