Of Trees and Men

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
they will sing before the Lord, for He comes,
He comes to judge the earth.
Psalm 96:12-13a

I’d wanted to write about trees for a long time now. There’s just something about them. In Chiang Mai, I’d made friends with several of them. In Seven Fountains where I used to go to be quiet, I’d make sure to walk around and lay a hand on each of the trunks of trees that I’ve become fond of. I’d audibly bless and thank them for doing such a great job praising our God. They really do, and now that I think of it, I suppose they can’t help themselves! They don’t have a free will like us people so they are just so into God. They don’t ever wonder whether they should or that they don’t have the time, they just fully adore God. They stand majestic and all-knowing. Their branches seem to be arms reaching out to the heavens, dancing and swaying, praising and rejoicing. I enjoy looking at them, they are a wonderful sight! I tried hugging them before too, but the ones I liked were humongous so my arms couldn’t reach around them. Secondly, some barks are rough, hard, knotty, and sometimes crawling with ants so my tree hugging experience stopped very quickly. =)

Tonight, I remembered to write about them because we have a real balsam pine tree in our living room this year and I was just touching it awhile ago. It is beautiful and smells great! We used artificial Christmas trees in the past so I was really excited to have a real tree for a change. It’s great not to have to look out to admire a tree. A gorgeous one sits right in our living room. It is a blessing.

Trees fascinate me. Now that their leaves have fallen, they’re even more interesting to look at. The complexity and intricacies of the branches are now visibly apparent. Apart from the beauty of the leaves, the baring of the branches is God’s way of showing off His creation. One cannot help but be fascinated by the way they are made!

I now understand my fascination with trees. I heard a teaching that said God is complete. He doesn’t need anything. He made us not because He needed us. He is a Creator and He lovingly made us in His image and gave us our free will. Our greatest gift to Him is to use that free will and willingly choose to love, worship, and adore Him. Trees and the way they look like they’re crazy-about-Him-all-the-time is I think what I relate with. They don’t ever stop praising; it is why they exist. Which brings my thoughts back to us; it’s what we should be doing. I’m drawn to trees because they show me what I should do more of: lift up my hands, rejoice, clap, sing, do with a purpose to serve, and just adore and love our God. Lord, please help us to simply adore and worship you in everything we do, just like the trees.