The Parable of the Tree – a story for the Season of Creation
 

Jesus taught about God through the lens of the natural world, writes Dave Gregory - and I learnt much by studying a small willow tree this summer 

There’s a small bush at the bottom of our garden. Well, I say bush. It was one that we cut back each year.  Looking back at the photos we took when we first bought the house eight years ago, it was a lot bigger.

We weren’t sure what kind of tree it was. But this year, we decided to let it grow, and over the summer its thin branches reached for the sky. They now reach up three metres tall; I can see them through the window as I write this, swaying rhythmically in the wind, its long narrow leaves dancing too.

Walking out around our estate and onto the common, down to the river, we began to see bushes and trees with similar branches and leaves. Some were smallish like our own. Others stood tall with thick trunks. Near the gate to the common there’s a stump of a tree which has been felled. Its trunk was one metre across, and now new branches like those of our own tree are sprouting its sides.

We’ll have to keep an eye on the one on our small garden – some pruning may be necessary.

We were still in the dark though as to what kind of tree it was. We took a photo of a branch and its leaves and slipped them to Google Lens on our phones. It came back with lots of similar images, all of them of the willow family.

As time went on through the summer, we noticed that the tree was attracting lots of insects. Small hover flies. Much larger hornets. Was there a nest nearby? 

But as we took a closer look, there was a layer of grey fur lining some of the branches - not some kind of fungus, but a colony of small, grey insects. 

Google Lens informed us they were “Willow Aphids” – the largest of this class of insect that you usually associate as being pest on your tomatoes or beans. This variety only live in willow trees, confirming our earlier discovery. 

We’ve continued to watch this community of life over the coming weeks. On sunny days, small, glistening droplets would fall from the aphids coating the lower branches and ground. Sticky and sugary, honey dew, this is what had attracted the flying insects. A valuable food source for them.

In the story of the God planting a garden in Eden, it says that the “trees were pleasing to the eye and good for food.”  (Genesis 2:9) Through the summer, our small, ordinary tree has been beautiful to behold.

In its shape and flowing movements. In the community of life that it provides for and fosters. “Good for food.” Not for us maybe (although in days past before modern medicine willow bark was used for pain relief as it contains aspirin), but good for food for the aphids, hoverflies, and hornets. A reminder that God’s provision through creation is not solely for us, but for all creatures. 

We are in the “Season of Creation.” A  time set aside within the church year to celebrate and reflect on the wonder and goodness of God’s creation. And to lament over its loss and set our face towards sharing in God’s care for it.

Jesus taught about God through the lens of the natural world. In parables. Consider the sparrow, the wildflowers. The kingdom of God is like  growing seeds or a fruiting tree full of life. Open ended, yet capturing something of the nature and action of God. Leaving people thinking, going deeper in their relationship and appreciation of God. In their relationships with each other. 

And so following Jesus’ lead, this “Season of Creation,” consider the Willow Tree. Read the story again.

Or find your own Willow Tree or another tree, bush or plant in your own garden, park and nearby countryside. 

Take time to watch. Take time to listen. 

What does it say to you about God and your part in sharing his life in and with the world? With people?

With the whole community of creation, with whom we share God’s world?
 

Dave Gregory - Baptist Mission for Science and Environment and Convenor of BUEN – the Baptist Union Environment Network

Related: 
Links to resources - or pages which collate resources - for this year's Season of Creation - compiled by Dave Gregory

 

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