Did you know that a tree grows in two directions at the same time? It’s always growing down and growing up. The root system mirrors the fruit system. A tree is the only thing in the universe that is both gravitropic and phototropic. Its roots grow away from light and toward gravity, while the rest of the tree reaches for the sun. 

Before a tree can ever grow upward, the seed first has to grow downward into darkness, resistance, pressure, and dirt. The roots have to fight their way deeper underground. Only after that hard, unseen work does the tree break through the surface and start growing upward where there’s less resistance. 

This is one of the most beautiful pictures of how life works. The work you do in the dark when nobody sees you, when life feels difficult and heavy is what creates the success people admire later in the light. Everybody wants the fruit. Everybody wants the visible success, recognition, and results. But very few people are willing to go through the lonely seasons that create it.