Nature’s Lesson.
Some leftover lessons from nature's abundant book: From talking trees and plant friends to cracks in the pavement and Forrest fires.
"Look at the Birds” - Jesus (Matthew 6:26)
Root touch & Companion plants.
Far from being lifeless timber, trees have surprisingly social and complex lives. In fact, trees talk to each other. More than that they trade with each other. Forrest’s grow not by individual trees competing for sunlight and nutrients but by interconnected systems and ‘communities’.
Sound fantastical? well maybe the world is more wondrous than we give it credit for.
Experiments found that trees cut off from sunlight received food from neighbouring trees with access to the sun by means of their root system. Here’s a Harvard University researcher’s conclusion “trees are indeed communicating with each other and sharing nutrients through their roots, forming a complex system sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web””
A similar thing happens in gardening, to put it cutely: plants have friends! They are called companion plants, and they mutually help each other grow by sharing the weight of survival. The world can be a scary place, and surviving can be hard, but we get by with a little help from our friends (Thanks to John, Paul, George & Ringo).
Survival is hard for all life: plants, animals and for us humans too. It’s not always easy to keep moving on in the world. We are taught that we need to compete, to outshine, to be better, to keep climbing, to make it! It’s a ‘dog eat dog world’ and only the best, fittest, strongest, richest will survive! but God has a powerful lesson for us, and the life of plants shows us that it works!
Galatians 5:13-15 says: ”For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.”
We don’t need to compete, why? because we have been set free from that exhausting way of living. The pursuit of self-worth and value has proved to be a vain pursuit, the Cross of Jesus has shown us how deep & how vast our value is. We don’t need to keep up appearances, or constantly compare or compete anymore. We are enough, more than enough! YOU ARE ENOUGH. Instead, God’s kingdom is about community and service. How will we grow? how will the kingdom of God spread and be strong? not by fighting and competing, but by serving and loving each other. God has given us each other, a community, a family, He calls it the Church. The Church helps each other, the Church serves each other. The Church isn’t about being the best, and getting to the top, it’s about helping each other, sacrificing - loving each other, really loving each other. So who is the Church? well, it’s you! it’s me! it’s us! We are the Church! and as the Church, we need to learn from the trees in the forest, the flowers of the field and the vegetables of my garden, to be the Church God planned for us to be, a Church that brings life and helps each other grow.
Lesson: Lean into the community, help each other.
Life is Powerful.
I love nature documentaries, when the presenter will describe the harshness of an environment where the pressure is so extreme it’s like having the weight of the moon on your chest. There is no light and no oxygen and the temperature ranges from the surface of the sun (5,505°C) to the icy atmosphere of Uranus (-218°C), only to conclude with “but even here, there is life” And then the creepiest, worst animal appears straggling its way through the darkness with its alien adaptations.
(I tried to find a video of David Attenborough saying it in his golden baritone voice. But I was unable to locate one, so you’ll just have to imagine him saying it with that David Attenborough voice we all have floating in our head… I know you know what I mean.)
I think about that line a lot. “Even here, there is life”
I think about it when I see plants grow through the cracks in the pavement.
I thought about it when I drove through the areas burnt by the 2019/20 bush fires.
I think about it when I look at my garden and I think of it when I see trees growing in precarious places.
Why? because in all these places I see something amazing. I see something hostile to life, and yet life!
Thriving, animate, growing, wonderful life!
Our world is biased towards life! As if some divine force is willing life into being. The Bible begins with God, and out of the dark nothingness, he speaks forth light and life. It is by the word, power and will of God that life enters the world. And although the powers of darkness are constantly seeking to return everything to the cold empty silence of death, it cannot overcome the light. And the promise of God is that it never will! (John 1:5). Life will always find a way! Even here! Even now! Trees will grow on windswept rocks, plants will cling to cracks in bricks and paving stones, and even the ash and desolation of forest fires will bring with it a flurry of new, vibrant life.
The tree (Pictured above) that grows on that barren rock, is an image of hope and testament to life’s prevailing power. Just as another tree, planted in a rocky hillside long ago became the symbol and means of hope for the whole world. On that tree was nailed a frail and solitary figure, his life spent, his blood fell into the dust below, his breath fleeting and then still, silent. All returned to darkness and the barren world claimed another life. But then, life returned, a phoenix from the ashes (think Harry Potter). This is God’s world and his world is Life. Death and darkness do not win, life finds a way, life wins! When this whole world fades away, it does not fade into death or retreat into darkness. It fades into life like the foggy morning fades into blazing daylight. Let the resilience of the world give you hope, that where there is GOD there is LIFE!
Lesson: Hold on to hope, there is a light shining & life will find a way, even here.
Building is slow, Destruction is easy.
This is a short one, I promise.
I picked up a piece of sandstone and over the course of a few minutes I destroyed it and turned it back to sand.
Forrest are ancient habitats, the Daintree forest in Queensland is thought to be 180 million years old. It has been growing and forming for 180 million years! yet if we were to cut it down at the rate we are cutting down the Amazon rainforest, we could completely destroy it in 6 months! 180 million years to make, 6 months to destroy.
The band The Smiths once sang
”It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind.”
The lesson is this, God calls us to be people who are kind, forgiving and patient towards each other. Because He knows that friendships, communities, trust, and peace take time and work. But destruction, gossip, hate, anger, division, cliques, arguments and the like, are easy and quick!
Let’s be people, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who seek to build the Kingdom of God, a slow yet beautiful creation. Rather than people who in our rashness destroy, tear down and hate.
The rock in my hand could have taken hundreds or thousands of years to form, yet I destroyed it in minutes.
”But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.” - Galatians 5:22-23
JW
