I was walking down to church the other Sunday evening. I noticed a tree in the corner of the grounds belonging to the flats by the long alley way on the Worplesdon road. I recalled not seeing one for quite some time (since the event I’ve seen two in a clients garden!).
I pondered its meaning and why it had caught my attention. At the same time I was asking God what I could share in the sharing time as I believe in being a participant in worship not a spectator.
I considered that it was a lone tree yet it wasn’t insignificant – it had caught my attention for one. Lone in the sense that it was the only one like it around. In other words it was unique.
One doesn’t see this kind of tree regularly in our native woodlands as it is an alien tree, brought from China. The tree was very tall and straight – it had managed to get the light it required.
It was a Ginkgo biloba which is a tree from old stock – it’s been around for thousands of years, the oldest known being 3,500 years old. Found also in the Jurassic to Cretaceous fossilised record; as its around today it’s known as a living fossil. It is the only tree left of its class, order, family and genus. (The English name for it is the Maidenhair tree as the leaves look like the maidenhair fern)
We might think we are different, well we are…. we might think we’re like this tree alone and unnoticed but like what happened with me something about it caught my eye. We are also part of something lasting. Jesus holds all things together and life continues by his sustaining power even over thousands of years. Even though we might think of ourselves as aliens and strangers in a foreign land he has given us our location or place to be in and put down our roots into the community around us. You too can stand out!