Let me explain. To me, trees represent freedom, openness, and vulnerability. Now, while that last word does not quite seem to fit the stigma of the positively connoted appeal the other words offer, it is nonetheless a blessing. By vulnerable, I mean vulnerable to the intimacy of letting God know me so closely, which He inevitably does, that it is in a sense frightening and gutsy. "You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same," if I am going to quote a Chris Tomlin song. But really, this all comes together.
When I first heard the song "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan probably four years ago , my view on trees dramatically changed. That line, you know which one I am talking about-- "He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane; I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy." Let us think about this (however, this image overwhelms me, so be prepared for mucho run-on sentences and "ands")-- I am a little baby tree. I mean, I could be the biggest tree in the land but I would still be comparably small. I live among the other trees, minding my own photosynthesis (?) and I am basically free to grow and branch out (I love puns) as I please. Ahh, the freedom of the open air. The birds. The sun. The wind. Oh, the wind...
And so, in the land of accepted obliviousness, narrow worldliness, and conceptual self-sufficiency, I am overcome. I am bound to the ground, unable to be moved by even the greatest of forces. But when He comes, when HE comes, I am done. I am no match.
The hurricane hits. His "surpassing greatness" is so strong that even the largest of trees cannot stand on their own. Even the thickest barked-skin begins to bend and the world around goes crazy with no direction whatsoever and it is hard to even comprehend what is going on and you are scared but something is making you submit, something is making you bend and His wind is not letting up, but instead it is getting stronger and stronger and faster and more powerful until the freedom you once felt you know longer feel... but you experience.
^ Wow really long sentence........
His love is a hurricane. I am a tree. The winds of His affection hit me so hard that it is indisputably breathtaking, that I am not able to stand on my own and when He proves that to me by knocking me over with His love-- however He wishes to do so--I am really free. I am open. I am vulnerable to His undeserving love.
As I do have a confessed love for symbolism, I also have a (previously) confessed love for correlation. I chose the title of my blog (ahh) to be "Tear Down the Walls," and some of you may not know what I exactly mean by that. (There is a really great song by Hillsong United called "Tear Down the Walls," by the way.) Anyway, to go along with the tree-me analogy (not-so-funny rhyming humor), I was born with walls, walls that were created only to be torn down. Walls of pride, selfishness, greediness, anger, manipulation, lust, shame, sin. Now, I have never seen a tree surrounded by walls--it would not survive--thus making the tree "free", "open", and "vulnerable." So by letting Him tear down the innate walls that I have built up higher and higher over time, I am submissive. I am unhindered. I am fully His. He has all of me, and I am quite willing. I cannot resist the hurricane of His love. No walls. Only openness. And so, let the wind blow.
And that is why I like trees.
And that is why I say "Tear Down the Walls."
Love and trees,
LMB
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