Kids, Hugs & Trees

Kiana Grant Photograpy

In the visible world of nature, a great truth is concealed in plain sight: diminishment and beauty, darkness and light, death and life are not opposites. They are held together in the paradox of “hidden wholeness.” In a paradox, opposites do not negate—they cohere in mysterious unity at the heart of reality. Deeper still, they need each other for health, as my body needs to breathe in as well as breathe out. But in a culture that prefers the ease of either-or thinking to the complexities of paradox, we have a hard time holding opposites together. 

-Parker Palmer in Let Your Life Speak

It is peak of autumn here in Minnesota. We walk the woods and my husband says it’s like a great big hug. A hug of color. Do you ever wonder how God came to make the season of dying the most glorious of all?! 

There’s so much mystery in this life, isn’t there? What’s really happening? What is God doing? Where are we heading? What role do we play?

Sometimes mysteries are fun. The anticipation. The adventure. The hidden surprises. Child’s play.

Like exploring a forest with grandkids. Hands loaded with dust-puff mushrooms. Soggy leaves of every color. I spy a turkey feather. “What’s this Nana?” Children stop in their tracks to run small fingers over a lichen log. Little necks swivel back, back, back—searching uppermost branches of Papi’s favorite tree. 

Laughing, skipping, full of wonder. Letting go and living free.

But then, it would seem, the soul grows up. Curiosity dies. Wonder is replaced by worry. Fear. The dark side of mystery. We want answers. We want to know what in all this world God is really up to. We’re desperate to figure it out. 

Have you ever thought about the two trees in the Garden of Eden? Why the naming? Why the test? 

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What does it mean? 

Listen. I am well aware of the times we live in. The wars and the rumors. The storms and disasters. Sin and sadness. I do not live with my head in the sand. 

And yet. It’s impossible to dance on quicksand. 

Do not eat from the Tree of Knowing… 

We are deceived, thinking our greatest need is TO KNOW. To have our answers. To choose our sides. 

But what if knowing is actually quicksand? What if… in our efforts to keep our heads out of sand… we are instead, feet first, sinking??  

There was another Tree, of course.  

The Bible’s bookends. Opening chapters. Closing Revelation.

Tree of LIFE. 

Tree of Living. 

Fruit for the healing of nations.* 

The Author of Mystery invites us to eat. 

And He also invites us to live like trees! 

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

    whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

    that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

    its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

    and never fails to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV

Sure the same tree that blossoms in springtime and produces apples in autumn, bears its dying branches to winter snows. What a wonder, this hidden wholeness. What a testimony for people who wait.  

Like trees by the water, roots by the stream. Wasn’t it Jesus himself who said we’d flow with his very own Spirit? 

The children of mankind… feast on the abundance of your house,   

and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

Psalm 36:8

Do you feel it? Can you hear the gurgle of that bubbling water?

Hebrew “delight” is actually the word EDEN.

Like children we wriggle our roots deep, deep, deep—dipping toes into Spirit’s water. Soaking up this Eden LIFE!

*Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2