The stump of a tree

Look again at the Isaiah passage for this week -- at the very first verse of chapter 11:

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots

I was reading the lectionary musings of Revgalblogpals. Someone (semfem) said in the comments, "I'm really focusing on the stump/shoot images in all three texts--this idea that from something that looks so utterly dead, something new can spring up."

That's an aspect of this verse that I hadn't noticed before -- life springing up from something dead. It raises some questions in my mind.

1. What we think something is dead, are we always right? Think about a tree stump. Could it be that the stump is not dead? Are the roots alive?
2. Could it be that we give up hope too soon? Could it be that we lack the faith to continue to believe in the face of what we think of as the "end?"
3. Do we lack the faith to believe that God can do what we think is impossible?

I think back to Sunday school last week and the lesson's explanation of spiritual barrenness. Do we experience that lack of faith when we fail to see the potential in a tree stump?