doodle: “tree of life”
I love this time of year when our trees wake up from a long winter’s nap and suddenly, the world is filled with bright spring blossoms that last just a few weeks before the trees settle into shades of green for the summer.
Something caught our eye in the garden a couple years ago, at springtime. As our cherry tree burst into full bloom, we noticed that one of it’s branches had very different flowers – the blooms on this branch were white while the flowers covering the rest of the tree were pink!
After the flowering season, when the branches turned green, it was hard to tell that branch apart from the others.
“Let’s see what kind of fruit the branch bears in autumn,” said Rob. “If they are apples, we will know it’s an apple tree that somehow got meshed in with our cherry tree.”
That reminded me of one of my favorite quotes: “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds.” –Saint Basil
I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of tree I am. Barbara Walter’s famous question to people in interviews over the years has been, “If you were a tree, what tree would you be?”
The answer is inevitably linked to what kind of “fruit” is seen in my life. Just as a mango tree will not bear thorny fruit; nor a thorny tree, peaches; so it is with our lives.
Darkness begets darkness. Light begets light.
A hardened heart filled with bitterness, unforgiveness, hostility, unwillingness to learn, arrogance, pride… can only bear fruit that reflect those characteristics.
On the other hand, a soft heart filled with love, grace, humility, teachability… will bear fruit that reflect those characteristics.
My choices, decisions, responses, actions, behavior, etc. all reflect what is on the inside.
Cause and effect.
Every thought, word and action that comes out of us, comes out of the inner depths of our core being. The “fruit” our lives bear says everything about us –who we really are, what our values are, and where our hearts truly lie.
What does my life say about me?
What is our highest calling? We are not called to be ourselves or to be the best we can be. We are called to be like Christ who set the perfect sample for us – motivated by love, desiring to be like Him, being transformed by Him, reflecting His heart and character, bearing His fruit…
Proverbs 11:30 sums it up well: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life…”
We are called to be trees of life.
~shini abraham, ©2015, duco divina – contemplative doodling
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