Speaking of trees...on Friday, my kids wrote in their journals about trees. The topic was: "If you could be any kind of tree, and grow anywhere, what tree would you be, where would you grow, and what would your purpose be?"
They came up with some very beautiful, creative, and insightful responses. Some said they wanted to be the palm branches so they could praise Jesus and sing Hosanna this Sunday. One said she wanted to be an apple tree to provide luscious fruit to all God's children. One said he wanted to be the tallest tree ever so when people looked up at Him, they would be looking towards Heaven. One said he wanted to be chopped down and made into a boat that takes people out in the ocean so they can scuba dive and see the great and giant ocean that God created! One girl said she would be the cross that Jesus died on. Another said she would be a "fun" tree, where friends and lovers could have picnics underneath. They had fun with it, and I was blessed after reading all of them!
This journal made me stop and think about trees for a moment...and do a little research. Did you know that the Bible contains 525 references to trees or wood? More than any other type of living organism, except humans? There are 22 trees recognized in the Bible. (I won't name them all.) But it makes you think about what a wonderful symbol of life a tree is. I can sit and admire a tree's size, age, the beauty of it's branches, or the mystery of it's bareness. Trees have always impressed me, nature in general impresses me! I've seen some ancient, just remarkable old trees in Africa. Often times, the tree is the center of life for a village. The tree marks the spot where the Maasi trades his cattle, or takes a new wife. Where the women sit and weave here in Rwanda, and the baby lies patiently in the grass. Where the kids play with their "tire" car, and their mom sells bananas nearby. Baobab trees are my favorite. They are so exotic, and mystery, with their bizarre looking arms stretching out in all kinds of directions, and a huge trunk that you can live in! A tree can't get any cooler than that! Trees represent life...they give food, beauty, protection, and they are also used in many holy books to describe how we are to live.
"He is like a tree planted by a stream of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Psalms 1:3
"The righteous will flourish like a palm tree; they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon."
Psalms 92:12
I thought this verse in the Koran was interesting as well...
"Do you not see how God compares a good word to a good tree? Its root is firm and its branches are in the sky; it yields its fruit in every season by God’s leave. God speaks in parables to mankind so that they may take heed. But an evil word is like an evil tree torn out of the earth and shorn of all its roots."
Sura 14:24-25
I think about the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, the Ark, Noah's ark, the tree that allowed Zaccheus to see Jesus, the tree of life in paradise in Revelation. Trees were important in the Bible, and they still are now! As my kids were writing, I was trying to answer the question as well. What kind of tree would you be? What would your purpose be? Would you be a tree that just stood there, doing nothing, but allowed a old tax collector the chance to see the face of Jesus? Whatever tree we would be, let us be one that bears many fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
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