Egg #3, The Redwoods

When you tip your head all the way back, your mouth falls open. You can’t help it. (or at least, I can’t). This entire morning was a reminder of the awe of I AM. The sunrise over the hills and fog in the valleys. I AM. The curves of the road through the land. I AM. The height of trees that pulled your eyes ever upward. I AM. And I was when I planted them long, long ago. The awe is not forced. It is an invitation to be still, to wonder, to listen, to see beauty, to be awed.

As we walked through the Redwood forests, spiritual metaphors abounded.

--Fallen trees don’t die, they continue to live and other giant trees grow from them. Likewise, sometimes our dreams, our hopes, our desires must fall or be put aside for something bigger and better to come from them.

--Burls, seeming warts on the trees, are the places where new trees, new life can spring forth. How the burls form or grow is still unknown. Similarly, God is in the business of bringing new life out of pain, weakness and brokenness. We are seldom sure how He is going to do it and often initially want to just remove the “wart.” Yet He works in beautiful and mysterious ways. He promises that new life will come from those broken places (see Isaiah and the Psalms) and that new life will surpass even what we could have hoped.

 --Roots go wide, not deep, allowing interdependence. If you tread hard on the roots, they are damaged and the trees will die. In the same way, when one of the people we are connected to falls or struggles, we all are impacted. However, when all the roots are healthy, they help everyone be healthy, especially when those roots are in Jesus (see John 14).

--At any given time, you could see at least 9 different kinds of trees, not to mention all the other plant and animal life. In the body of Christ, our diversity is our beauty and strength: we could not function if everyone was a hand or a knee. Our diversity becomes our Achilles heel when do not value all the members for who they are and the role that God has called them to and given them. This drives us to prayer because without God allowing us to see His perspective of those around us, we will mostly be frustrated by how they don’t seem to be doing what we think their job is very well. When we were driving through the forest, it was hard to see all the different kinds of trees. But upon closer inspection from our sweet ride in the sky tram, they are all green and have needles, but they are different shades of green, their needles have different shapes and grow different directions. It is when we get to know others more intimately that we see the beauty and uniqueness that God has given them. From there, when we ask, He grants us the opportunity to see His perspective of the beautiful mosaic we all make together, all colored “green” in Christ.

We used sweet Gandalf staves on our hike back down.