Have you pondered trees lately? The Weeping Higan Cherry in my backyard dressed up spring with its pink wisps. I love the flexible branches that put me in mind of fluttering ballet costumes. It’s a medium-sized part of the landscape often used as an accent.
Another tree I see around town, the Carolina Silverbell, adds understory texture, often growing in the shade of larger trees, in its open, free-flowing growth habit. Only when the cup-shaped white blossoms open do I notice it.
Bald Cypress, however, always draws me. Though a conifer, their leaves are deciduous. They bear seeds in cones but their leaves drop in the fall. Growing to 75 feet, their central trunk supports horizontal limbs to create a pyramid shape, like childrens’ drawings of trees. Cypress tolerates wet roots and will grow “knees” in soggy conditions.
God designed trees species by species, varying on a small number of dimensions. People, however, God designs individually, one by one. (Psalm 139:13)
And we vary on hundreds of dimensions. Some are like the trees: as flexible as the branches on a weeping cherry, haphazard growth like the silverbell, extraordinarily tall like a mature cypress. But the options range way beyond the tree-like. What kind of intelligence? What do we find funny? Are we detail-oriented or a big-picture person? I doubt scientists have actually discovered all the possible dimensions of difference.
And I love that our creator-God not only loves us all, he likes us all: flexible, haphazard, dominating. Brilliant or delayed, funny or serious, studying each tree or gazing on the forest, he wants to be with you and me today.
Let’s invite him in. Father, Creator, Papa, we want to be with you. May we sense your presence, hear your voice, feel your arms around us. Right now.
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