At my recent writer’s critique group, one woman asked her colleagues to critique some pages about a dystopia world in a Redwood forest. We gave her feedback, but I curiously watched and listened as several writers rhapsodized over the tree power they experienced among California’s redwoods. One woman said, You can walk among these natural skyscrapers and feel such protection and peace. You don’t get that walking under New York City’s tallest buildings.
I had to agree with her. Who doesn’t find solace under beautiful trees? And, why is this so?
Willow Tree Power
On my bookshelf is the story of a woman, terribly abused as a child by her alcoholic father and passive, enabling mother. The woman says she found God’s comfort under a willow tree where she could hide, dream, and feel protected. Even then, she says she sensed that God would some day provide her with a mother who would mentor her in wholesome ways. The story concludes with a healthy adoptive mother and daughter. Her childhood Willow Tree was a tree of inner power and promise.
Tree of Life
When we dated long distance, my fiancé and I decided to do word Bible studies on seeds, vines, trees, and fruit. The one on trees was my favorite as I discovered that the Tree of Life, eventually forbidden in the beginning of Genesis, is found transplanted at the end of Revelation. It is joyfully available for eating in God’s future city:
“Then the Angel showed me Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, right down the middle of the street. The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing twelve kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month. The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations. Never again will anything be cursed.
The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service—worshiping, they’ll look on his face, their foreheads mirroring God. Never again will there be any night. No one will need lamplight or sunlight. The shining of God, The Master, is all the light anyone needs. And they will rule with him age after age after age” (Revelation 22:1-5, The Message).
We Are Trees!
The Bible compares us to trees in several places. I had to memorize Psalm 1 at age 12 and recite it to my church before becoming a member. Here is the tree power portion:
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
(Psalm 1:1-3, New International Version)
A School of Oaks
This week I read about Indianapolis’s amazing The Oaks Academy, founded in 1998, and doing a great job for the 600 children enrolled there (half are low income, one-fourth middle income, and one-fourth higher income). Did you catch the tree power name of the school of Oaks?
Journalist Russ Pulliam writes, “The Oaks led the state on the Indiana academic Test this past year, beating out better-endowed private schools and suburban schools—but Oaks CEO Hart remembers a much bigger purpose for the school. He wants to bring a blessing to Indianapolis, in accord with Isaiah 61:3-4: “They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations” (p. 39, July 9, 2016, WORLD Magazine).
The Oak Academy has the right idea. I mean, if we each are like God’s beautiful trees (Redwoods, Oaks, Evergreens, Aspens) we are participating in Kingdom-building right now. We can have a peaceful, potent impact on those who come under our branches. It’s tree power; and it’s marvelously at work wherever we are rooted.
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For an 18-minute TED talk by tree ecologist Suzanne Simard, click on the link below to hear Simard describe how trees “talk” to each other through their elaborate root system.
http://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other