I enjoyed our walk in suburban Detroit on Saturday. The chill was in the air, the sky was high and crystal blue. Autumn leaves abounded in piles in some yards and in disarray in most. Then above me, on the mighty oaks were buds. Thousands and thousands of promises, in the form of buds. I don't know that I ever really thought about them before that.
This from a nature center information document: "Winter branches are not bare! Winter twigs are studded with jewels. The tip of each branch contains the packaged promise of next year's growth. This package is called the bud.
A tree bud consists of next year's leaves, stems, and perhaps flowers, which are folded, twisted, crumpled, pressed together and covered by a waterproof coating of modified leaves called bud scales.
Buds are small. You have to be close enough to touch a tree to notice its buds. Take time to examine a twig in fall or winter. You will be amazed by the diversity of color, form, and texture of these distinctive features of our winter flora. Tree buds come in any shape that can be constructed with a curved line." (http://www.wildwnc.org/education/naturalists-notes/this-buds-for-you)
God always provides for his creatures, even for his botanical ones. He, after all, created everything.
He even created you and me. And that promise/ provision of the future in the bud, is in us as well. Maybe that's why we believe we will be ok when we sit in a bus or train or airplane. Why we trust our unseen future when we attend classes at school or university. Maybe that's why we take new jobs or take leaps off snow lifts into fresh snow-covered mountains.
The adventure of living requires us to live in faith. But faith is not empty. Nor are the buds. Faith is filled with confidence because of the God who has demonstrated himself in the past. I wish I could return to this park near the middle school in West Bloomfield come springtime. I wish I could take a photo of this tree and we could all enjoy the fruits of our faith. We could see leaves and abundant leaves at that filling this massive tree. And those leaves would cause the tree to breathe and live again.
God has put buds in us, anticipating buds which long to experience the reality of the life of the Almighty. Our times are always ready for springtime, but often we have to walk through all seasons to get there. Be patient. Be anticipating. Be faith-filled.
God knows.
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2 comments:
From the same North Carolina document: Oak buds have many scales, overlapping in a spiral pattern like shingles on a roof. Oak buds are typically clustered near the tips of branches, where they are arranged in spiral patterns analogous to the arrangement of the scales on each bud.
It is sort of like a fractal. I can honestly say I don't really know what they are except that it's like something in something recurring or something. It's interesting because it's like you can think of a bud like an object in itself and then again realise that you can see a tree with lots of buds. But I suppose that God is then like a tree that gives life to that tree. But to define God as a tree would just be like trying to get an understanding of who God is. Like it's the search for truth. The truth is out there. And it's like those who want to discover will find it.
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