HARDENED AND PETRIFIED vs. NEW LIFE AND GROWTH

Then if our hearts have been hardened,

yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word,

insomuch that it has not been found in us,

then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned.

Alma 12:13

Petrified comes from the Greek root petro meaning "rock" or "stone". Petrified wood is literally "wood turned into stone".

Petrified wood is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone when all the organic materials have been replaced with minerals. The petrifaction process occurs when wood becomes buried under sediment and is initially preserved due to a lack of oxygen. In general, wood takes less than 100 years to petrify.

I took the above photo of petrified wood and a living tree side by side in the Petrified Forest National Park which is located in the Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona.

There is much symbolism to be found in this image. How does a tree become petrified? How does a heart become hardened? What allows for a tree to grow? What is needed? Obviously a tree doesn’t become petrified overnight, but over a course of many years of being “buried” in material that does not allow the “oxygen” or “light” to in. There is a cycle to things in this world, a cycle that brings death, and a cycle that brings life. Which path is our hearts on?