Faith grows like a tree, by adding rings… A one-year-old tree is truly and completely a tree. As it develops, it doesn’t become more truly a tree; it only becomes more complex.

In the same way, one stage of faith is not better or more truly faith than another… A tree’s growth depends on its environment. It needs water, sun, and the right sort of healthy soil.

Faith is like that; it doesn’t develop in a vacuum, but in response to our experiences in the world. Further, a tree grows in a slow, orderly manner, building on its previous growth.

It doesn’t skip rings or lose rings. Each ring depends on the ones before and after it for wholeness. Fully mature faith has not lost the character and nature faith has at its very beginning; it is not greater faith, but only expanded faith.