Just outside my kitchen window is a small red-filled tree. It seems to be in no hurry to let go of its leaves. I’ve wondered why. Now I know. It was waiting for me to stop and pay attention, to listen. I’m smiling now as I remember this is just how God is with us. In our plain sight, if we have eyes to see. Waiting patiently for us to stop and listen. And, so I did and this is what I heard…
I pray your steps will slow when you walk past me. Maybe you will even pause for a quiet moment to gaze at my brilliance frolicking within every leaf. Perhaps if you allow me to catch you off guard, so that the simple wonder of me leaves you, just for a moment, breathless, and perhaps then you will remember how much alike we are.
Like me, you too began as just a seed in the womb of life. Like me, you were nurtured as you grew within the great Mother. Now, like me, you have grown tall throughout the many seasons of storms, sunlight, violent winds, soft rains, and through the many nights of deep darkness and the many days of mornings’ sweet glow. And, just like there is no other tree quite like me, you too are unique among creation. Imagine that! And, it was all there in that tiny seed, in me and in you, right from the beginning.
Will you come play with me in the wind as just the sheer delightful of it all dances us across the breathless sky? When the storms come, will you surrender with me into the shelter of what will be? And, in quiet times, will you allow your limbs to rest like mine so we may feel, in our stillness, the marrow of our veins pulsing that silent longing? And, when our seed is spent and withered, can you, lay down with me, smiling, onto the soft hand of God, to be tenderly carried home?
I pray so…said the little red tree…
Me too…I said…me too.
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