Trees
Marsha and I often walk on trails in wooded areas. Here is a typical conversation.
Marsha: “Isn’t this beautiful!”
Mike: “It’s nice”
A few minutes pass, we’ve walked further down the trail.
Marsha: “Isn’t this beautiful.”
Mike: “Marsh, it’s more trees.”
“It’s more trees.” has become a joke between us. Of course I’m thinking that it looks just like it did a few minutes ago and probably how it will look for the next 30 minutes. For me it lost its beauty shortly after the trail started up the hill, but not for her. She maintains that child-like wonder at the creation around her.
I was sitting on our deck the other morning doing my daily bible reading. There is a large silver maple tree right in front of me. “Isn’t it beautiful.” As I looked at it and sat before the Lord I saw the thousands of leaves on the tree. While all similar in shape none are exactly alike. Yes the tree has it’s problems. A broken branch here and a dead branch there, some branches that need pruning, some leaves are getting eaten by bugs and others are dried up and dead. But it has beauty, provides shade on the deck and even reduces my carbon footprint.
Beyond that tree are more trees in our wooded backyard, red maple, black walnut, white pine and others. “Isn’t it beautiful.” No two are identical, each has its brokenness, beauty and strength. Beyond that the woods continue across a stream and up a hill, but I can’t see the forest because of the trees. In each of those trees is life and depth and uniqueness, and beauty.
Then my mind wandered off to consider the church. Each person in a church is like a leaf on the tree, similar but unique. Each church is unique, some are similar, some quite different, like maple trees and pines. Yet each is a part of a larger “forest” of communities that is The Church. There is beauty in The Church, in each church, in each one of us. I think I sometimes miss the beauty of the church because of the problems with the leaves. I see the problems, the missed opportunities, the brokenness, the dried up and bug eaten and miss the beauty of our church, not as a part of a tree, but as the body of Christ.
Unlike the trees, we are created in the image of God, in His character. We are image bearers of the Creator! As believers we have His Spirit indwelling us. “Isn’t it beautiful.”