Our New Blog!

This blog is a new venture for Tall Timbers! As we continue to grow, we are finding new ways to reach out to everyone. You see us on social media, and many of you have experienced the new website as you register for camp. We want this blog to be a way for you to read and experience the personal things that happen here. Believe me, if you know us at Tall Timbers, you know there’s always a story to be told!

I wanted this first post to tell a little about the title of the new blog: Trees Firmly Planted. If you’ve been here at the camp, it’s no secret that there is a theme of trees here by the names of the buildings: Elm, Beech, Cedar, Spruce, Fir, Oak, Cypress, and Magnolia. Everyone thinks the name, Tall Timbers, came from the super tall pine trees we have all across campus, but that’s only half of the story. At the annual WMU meeting in 1963 (that’s Women’s Missionary Union for y’all not fluent in Baptist culture), “Tall Timbers” was suggested as the name for the camp, which would open later that year. WMU history says, “inspired by the tall pine trees on the property, the name suggested to campers that their lives should grow like the timbers which form a natural sanctuary around them, with roots firmly planted deep within God’s soil, towering upward as they lift themselves above, and branches reaching outward to suggest God’s encompassing love.”

As I was creating this blog, that phrase, “roots firmly planted” stuck out in my mind. Then, I remembered how the very first psalm begins:

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
² But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB)

There it is! When we, as Christ-followers, delight in God’s law, we are like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. This isn’t thinking of God with a book full of rules and regulations. This is God the good father. The shepherd. The King! God’s law is love and His son Jesus quenches our thirst completely with his sacrificial love for us. Jesus is the Bread of Life(John 6:35)  and Living Water (John 4:13-14, John 7:37-39), and the stream in Psalm 1 that produces a strong, healthy tree that bears fruit.

May we always be a tree firmly rooted in God’s presence. I’m sure the trees at Tall Timbers have witnessed many whose lives have been changed when they encountered the One who offers living water!