Sometimes even nature doesn’t know.
This feels a little weird to say, but I just can’t stop thinking about this tree. I noticed it on a golf course in Nebraska recently. Notice how it’s almost split in half? Clinging to life on one side, beautiful and green, and embracing death on the other. The beauty of the changing season.
I keep returning to paradox. How life is full of AND. The challenge of holding two seemingly opposite, beliefs, emotions, or realities, at the same time.
Jesus as both human AND God.
Feeling joy AND sorrow.
Goodness AND grief.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 MSG
There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace. But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift.
It’s so easy for me to get caught up in the ONE right answer, right decision, or right feeling. I find myself feeling paralyzed in decision making, fearing choosing WRONG. Replaying the ‘what if’ soundtrack in my mind.
The truth is, I think, there’s so much we don’t know and won’t know. Can I trust God holds it all? Trust so that I can make the most of my life? To let go when it’s time, to hold on when it’s time, and when I’m just not sure?
Return to the One who is.
I keep thinking about this tree. I wonder what God might have to tell you as you let your gaze linger here?
