The healing that comes with the friendship of trees....

I knew for days that I was supposed to watch the movie, Avatar.  I was being pulling back into it.  I wasn't aware of why.  Then this scene:

Jake Sully: Look, I know you probably don't understand this...
[Neytiri ignores him and speaks Na'vi]
Jake Sully: Thank you.
[Neytiri speaks Na'vi]
Jake Sully: That was pretty impressive. I would have been screwed if you hadn't come along.
[Neytiri stands up and leaves. Jake follows her]
Jake Sully: Hey, wait a second! Where are you goin'? Wait up! Just, hey, slow down! I just wanted to say thanks for killin' those things...
[Neytiri hits him with her bow]
Jake Sully: Aah! Damn!
Neytiri: Don't thank. You don't thank for this! This is sad. Very sad only.
Jake Sully: Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I'm sorry.
Neytiri: All this is your fault. They did not need to die.
Jake Sully: My fault? They attacked me! How am I the bad guy?
Neytiri: Your fault! Your fault.
Jake Sully: Easy. Easy...
Neytiri: You are like a baby. Making noise, don't know what to do. 

And I began to weep.

I realized more places where I was "like a baby," in things that matter.  All the places I would call good evil and evil good.  The places that still reverberate within me more as American Non denominational consumer based "christian," playing with things of the spirit with no, to little understanding  versus settling into knowing God. His heart, His vision, His purposes... His ways that are higher then.

His reality.

His understanding.

 His spoken good into Creation and very good into man...

What did it all mean? What does it all mean?  What is the fullness of Christ's High Priestly prayer of oneness? What is the oneness of the Body of Christ? What is it to truly be only as strong as our weakest part? The reality of so much of truth; that I and the culture and form of Christianity  I participate within, don't understand. Aren't willing to understand or touch possible understanding out of fear or laziness.. Yet the premise and foundations for it all are within our very scriptures. 

The truths that His power is made perfect in weakness but I hate weakness.
That the poor are blessed and called rich, but I want money to spend and entertain myself
That the meek rule and yet I want to be strong and show but metered vulnerabilities
That in losing life we find it but who truly wants to die and face loss
That not leaning on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledging God our paths will be made straight unless of course it comes to planning out a Sunday service or a 5 year plan for church growth

In oh so many ways, I am "like baby."

Except today a tutor came on the scene.

 I am deeply moved.

Altered.

 Struck dumb.

Sitting with my husband who has loved the trees well; we have talked and talked this evening about many things ... Still, I am "like baby," but I am being held by beauty and transformation and growth is being added to me.

Here is my story of this afternoon... Beauty, and moments not sought after could have been easily ignored. Ever so grateful God has pressed in teaching me to listen to the stillest of whispers; the gentlest of breezes.

I sat on the patio with a bag full of reading needing to be done. Except I was drawn to my notebook.  Reading some journal entries I had written yesterday.  Then I knew. Pick up pen.  Find new page. No reading for class was going to be done.  As I looked to my left, trees caught my attention. 

As I looked in front of me, trees caught my attention.

My whole being alighted.

The sky began to pulse, the earth began to sing and the trees began to whisper.  His voice became clear within the symphony of creation. " This is Creation's groan for you.  For you to understand and be revealed as a daughter."

  Creations groans go unheard more often then not and yet they are still sung over and over and over again. Their melodies are never not in the air.

This is my journey  of the afternoon. The affects reverberate deep and deeper still.  I  lay down, now, in my bed, reviewing in my mind the dance and beauty of the trees. Smiling. More full. Breathing. At rest.

The tree taught me many secrets this day; she and I will know one another forever.  I am not special that I heard  her song, I was just willing to listen.

This is how it began.

Father's desire came through the clouds wooing me to look up and enjoy Creation.  The sky, the clouds, the breeze, the air, the trees, the earth... the music was pure and brilliant and fun.  Creation was smiling. The Lord was smiling as I lifted my head from what I wanted to do, allowing all that I am to be touched and brought away from what I wanted to occupy my time with.

The blue of the sky expressed its nature.  Blue and tones of purple swirled to form the sky as did the white clouds enter covering the sun; illuminating themselves, making a display so awe inspiring that I was moved by wonder and fascination at how Creation so quickly bowed and obeyed.  Creating a most entrancing blend of color, light, sound, air,  and all the more that English language is not mature enough to bring forth fullness of explanation.

His voice came through the scene, through the clouds as it added to the wholeness of all that was transpiring.  "When you lock yourself into me and practice radical abiding, you live. A branch can not live apart from the tree and the tree needs its roots."  I could sense the wonder of the trees as the Lord talked about them.  How they love Him. They recognize Him for Creator always.  Never do they not know Him.  Never do they not bow.  We could learn much from trees.

Then He continued, " A tree needs its roots to go deep and its branches to stretch reaching up; meeting the air, meeting the sky.

Abide,

Abiding... Lean into that reality. Lean. Lean even more. Lean with everything in you.

I am the Vine. You are the branch."

Then I knew to pray and ask my Lord, my God; Creator of all that was and is and is to come the following,

Deepen the roots
Reach down and empower healing to go to all their ends.
(Knowing I was praying for generations  past and all that that entails.)
I reach up
Up into the air.
Reaching for warmth, sun, clouds, air, breath

I knew inside of me that by watching the reality of the trees in this season of Spring that  healing ... deep healing would enter my soul.  So I sat. I sat and I watched her and as I watched her I began to hear something ever so slightly.  I began to connect dots.  The beckoning to know to lean was for this moment. I was not to be afraid. I was not to think this wasn't happening.  I was to lean.  I was to lean into the moment. In leaning into the moment, in listening to the objective of the lesson taught merely minutes before, transformation began to saturate my flesh bearing into my soul.

The tree was singing.  Singing its Spring time songs.  Reaching up...  stretching down.
And I realized the last line of my prayer was actually picking up on the first line of the song of the tree.  Giving me their words.....

Reaching for warmth, sun, clouds, air, breath;
They enter to travel down..
Coursing through your frame
While the roots reach down into the depths of earth
meeting Earthen soil, minerals, nutrients pulling them up

Breeze and air,
sunlight and the kisses of the stars saturate your branches, your  leaves, your fragrance cascading downwards through all that you are
Earthen riches seep into your roots, feeding hunger.. strengthening base.

Moisture and Dew caught forth from the Heavens are pulled up as if through a straw by that which anchors you firmly into Earth.

The richness and gifts of air and earth meet within and form out a most incredible song.
If I dare to listen to its holy message I will find myself changed, renewed.. made strong.

You that stand so mighty, so full, with such stature and beauty reaching towards Heaven and mining the Earth tell me your secrets, convey to me your mysteries and sing to me your songs.  Your longing.. your groaning is that we would be revealed as the sons and daughters of God.. of the sons and daughters of Creator that we are....  Your songs so full of hope, so melodious.. so utterly aching for liberty.. so deep and full of the earth and yet so light and saturated with breeze that the notes float along the clouds.

Tell me your secrets
convey to me your mysteries
within your trunk it is all found
Rings upon rings
 It, you, all sing a melody... a melodious symphony cascades deeply from within sky rocketing up from the tops of your branches.. swirling together the songs of earthen creation and heavenly atmospheres.
It is a grander music.. it is a grander sound.. it is a grander symphony than has ever been known to man...
We have touched it here and there... those that listen and borrow from it's excellence...

Trees are magnificent tutors..

More prayers erupted from the depths of my soul...

Oh sweet tree, giver of life and fruit and that which is embodied to your care...
May I never negate you or treat you less than the divine good spoken upon thee..
You are  gift
You are friend...

The moment those words were spoken, I was caught up into a vision and I was standing next to the tree... I placed my hand upon its bark and all that was the tree coursed from the inside to meet my hand on it's exterior.

I closed my eyes
Warmth
Light
Breeze
Clouds fill out the sky, making lavender blueness with its pale essence.
Sun, cloud, sky .. they all nurture and again a fullness of music and sound and song and notes began ever so quietly.

I could see how in moments not recognized by us .. by me...  Humanity feels strengthened by the efforts and songs of the earth and sky, the trees, the grass, the air, light, color, wind... We hear it not with the ears given to us but yet these notes silently register upon our person.. upon hungry.. upon starved souls.

Blue meets purple as a kiss and forms out sky
White enters not as a timid ballerina but effortlessly stretching across the canvas; the stage of the sky with strength and precision.  White filtering and filling in the song.  Light erupts through them all.. through blue, purple, white, sky and cloud...  liken unto a cymbal marking a transition of movement in this most majestic symphony of Creation.

It is the day.  It is the music of the sky, saying come look at me... come gaze into me ... Into you I will flow with life such as a  melody that will alter you and bring you further up and further into His ways.

This is not a distraction but an impartation. Creation knows its Creator with the goodness spoken into its essence while humanity allows distraction away from reality of the very good and image reflecting properties of Him.  "Is it any  wonder why we groan," asked the tree? " How is that we, as good, as lesser.. know ?  Listen to our songs and be pulled up into His ways...."

Then I saw life within in the tree and it was magnificent...

 

A song continued to emerge. The more I was willing to listen, the more I could hear the life.  

Let me course through you and sing you a song that will strengthen your frame.  

I am light

I am air

I am wind, gust, breeze

I am water

I am fire

I am earth

I am sky

Each has a song

a call

a story

a melody

 a place

Each has a hunger

Each has a passion

Each has a way

I knew I felt stronger and I knew I was called to abide, abide deeply and learn to abide even deeper still.

I knew I was to breathe in and listen and heal

I knew Creation's groan and song were for me, for us all...

I knew I was being made more full.. more whole... I knew that the groan's of earth contained tears I could not shed for who I was not yet willing to be, but that she would not relent until I was formed fully into His image... for it was out of her that I was made.. out of her earthen dust ... earthen dust met divine breathe and I came forth...  It would be in her groan and again His divine breathe that I would be made new...

I knew I was to cultivate the awareness of what light and air and breathe and color and creation's song does for me, how it strengthens me as it bows all that it is to the One who spoke it all into existence. 

Then as the moments began to fade one last heart beat of instruction coursed forth on a fresh gust of air...

Trust

trust and believe

hope and nurture hope .. be and become 

Let love come... Let yourself be loved.

Then the words and picture that emerged healed depths of loneliness and pangs of sorrow...Creation befriended me; the tree specifically... But sun, air, light, color, song all took it's place, smiling.

I'll enfold you in my branches and wrap you in my bough

I'll hold your very being .. your body

Leaves once covered frightened human beings confounded by deception and pained by shame, let us cover you the same..

abide.. Abide!

This was my last prayer as the sun began to make its way slightly further down...

"You've touched my loneliness through creation and met me...  Bypassing my defenses through beauty, color, creation, wind, air, sound and song. You have cradled me and nurtured my inner most being.. thank you.. thank you (was being spoken to Father and to His creation, His trees.) "

And the sun smiled

And the wind played

And the child was carried up and beyond the notes Creation sung to her 

And God was pleased and called it good

And God was very pleased, thoroughly  happy and called it very good.