Julie Lavender

CONSIDER THE MUSHROOM
by Julie Lavender

With all the recent rain here in the southeast, I’ve encountered a host of mushrooms on various walks with God in the last few days.

I’m fascinated with the umbrella-capped fungus. These funny looking shoots from the ground are actually the fruiting bodies of the fungus, and most of the body of the fungus grows underground.

Sometimes people use the words “toadstool” and “mushroom” interchangeably, and though I’ve read that there’s no distinct scientific difference in the two words, apparently, most people use the word “toadstool” to identify the poisonous mushrooms.

A large number of mushrooms are poisonous to humans and animals. And some are inedible to humans, but not to various species of animals, like the box turtle.

One particularly fun fact about the mushroom fungi is the occurrence of a fairy ring. Mushrooms quite often grow in an almost-perfect circle. A scientific reason for this exists, but the myth is a lot more fun!

Different tales abound – some legends say that fairies come out at night, long after humans have retired for the evening, and dance inside the circle.

Still others report more sinister myths, like the one that warns of fairies forcing humans to dance to exhaustion if they unwittingly step inside the fairy ring.

And yet another legend advises running around the outside of the fairy circle nine times, then once more, and after the tenth time, the ill effects of the fairy ring absolve and humans are safe to step over the circumference to enter the fairy-only zone and join the merriment.

Myth and legend and silly folklore – fun for the imagination, but not an ounce of truth within the midst of the falsehoods.

My biologist husband explains that the underside of the mushroom cap drops spores onto the ground. A fungus starts growing from a single spore, and a tangle of threads grows underground, spreading out horizontally like the spokes of a wagon wheel.

The mushrooms that shoot up vertically are the reproductive flowers of the fungi that sprout from the ends of the threads. Thus, forming a ring of mushrooms above the ground.

And actually, that’s a pretty fascinating and creative plan from God, you know? I think God’s ways – His truths – are way more intriguing than any bit of folklore I’ve ever encountered!

My walks, punctuated with fairy and fungus fun, remind me that I want my roots to grow deep into the Lord – I want to be grounded in His truth always!

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught.

(Colossians 2:7 NLT)

What about you? Have you ever seen a fairy ring? Did you see mushrooms on your walk with God this week?