Healer's Tree

,

• Publisher: Wild Goose Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781849520775
• eBook ISBN: 9781849522335
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

A book of 28 short readings and reflections in response to the call back to the garden, back to full relationship with God and all creation. Suitable for group or individual use, each reflection includes a biblical quotation, a passage of prose, a prayer, questions for reflection, often relating to further biblical passages, and a closing thought.

One

GARDEN OF EDEN

Home

 

Awake, O north wind,

and come, O south wind!

Blow upon my garden

that its fragrance may be wafted abroad.

Let my beloved come to his garden,

and eat its choicest fruits.

Song of Songs 4:16

God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.

Genesis 1:29-31a

We start our journey in a garden, shaped and nurtured by an unseen gardener whose presence is all around. It is an archetypal garden transcending time and space, for which we still have an ancestral picture-map etched on our hearts tracing a path back, like the migration paths of wild geese.

Rainforest-wild but without the danger, orchard-rich but fruitful at all times, here the primal man and woman, representatives of all people to come, walk naked and unashamed in the presence of God, the One with the most beautiful imagination, who wants there to be bright colours and rich scents, squawks and whoops, soaring, creeper-entwined tree trunks, sunlit canopies of leaves, and an abundance of good things to eat; who wants there to be a creature with consciousness to appreciate the garden and share the sacred work of care-taking.

The Bible’s account of Eden gives us something very precious: a spiritual earth in which to take root; a home. From this place we can grow and realise peaceful interconnectedness with all life, all humanity. It is a centring point against which we can check our experience of reality, for we were meant, so the account in Genesis tells us, to enjoy relationship with one another, with God and all life, in harmony. That is the ideal, echoed by the prophets with their visions of restored peace.

There is and always has been a miracle-place where we can walk with God, who calls us forever through the lattice in the wall we have erected, ‘for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come ... arise my love, my fair one and come away’ (from S of S 2:10-13). The whispered invitation rings like a bell through eternity; the Lover of All waits with longing for us to come back and walk again in the cool of the evening, where we were always meant to be.

Is that You,

whispering one,

urging me secretly to walk

in the garden’s singing time

with You?

Always so soft your voice,

how long have you been

at my window,

and I did not know?

Forgive me,

for it has seemed an eternity

since, loving as one,

we walked together

in the light of a new creation.

Amen

For further reflection

1. How do you respond to the idea that God longs for you?

2. What, to date, have been your thoughts and feelings about the concept of Paradise?

3. Read Luke 23:39-43, the account of the two criminals executed alongside Jesus. One mocks Jesus but the other confesses his own guilt and Jesus’s innocence, asking, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,’ as though he understands more than many what that kingdom is. Jesus replies, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ Imagine yourself into that scene, and let the words spoken sink in deep, as you repeat them over and over in the silence of your heart, or as a chant or song, or spoken as two voices in conversation:

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom ...

Today you will be with me in Paradise ...

4. What does it say to you that all we know of Paradise from the gospels is that Jesus walks there with a convicted criminal who befriended him as they hung dying together? Society is hard on people who have been through or are caught up in the criminal justice system. What is a Christian response?

Closing thought

What is ‘home’ to you? If you think about your childhood home, what emotions does it bring up? How does it feel to go back further and deeper to a time before time, to another home, which you share with all creation in God?

Two

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

Discovering God’s constant support

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

Genesis 2:15-17

The beauty of the Garden of Eden sometimes seems overshadowed because we know with hindsight that there is something in it that leads to trouble. Illustrations of Eden zoom straight in on this tree, a naked couple poised underneath on the brink of catastrophe. But the tree of knowledge is a God-made gateway to human adventure: had the first couple declined to eat its fruit there would be no story to tell – no Bible, no journey through the wilderness of pain and despair to promised lands, no exiles, visions, struggles and revelations, no need for Christ’s saving work.

So are we not richer because of it? Is there not some insight to gain from the ordeal? The Tree of Knowledge is a tree of initiation, a point of departure where humankind moves from the dependent comfort of a privileged child out into the big wide world, and it works its power with subtlety. The genius of God knows humanity’s inquisitiveness and intelligence, the capacity to wonder and experiment, and knows Eden to be a nursery that Adam and Eve will have to leave in order to mature as human beings. How can God not know?

So what is the insight to be gained from the pain? It is Eve (whose name means Life Giver) who discovers the vital truth we all cling to: that God is still with her. She discovers this as she gives birth to her first child: ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’ (Gen 4:1– see footnote for introduction.) And so through the first woman, first taster of that Tree of Knowledge, we learn that we too can experience the presence of God in the real hardship of our journey through life. God supports us through our troubles with the compassionate hands of a midwife. Sensing the importance of this divine attribute, the Celtic Christians told a story about St Brigid, one of the most revered of all the Irish saints, that she found herself in Bethlehem and became the midwife and nurse of Mary and Jesus. Labouring, suffering, brings forth revelation of God and a new depth of wisdom. Perhaps that fruit of Knowledge is somethi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Dedication page
• Introduction
• Reflections
• 1. Garden of Eden
• 2. The Tree of Knowledge
• 3. The Tree of Life
• 4. The Healer’s Tree
• 5. Kevin and the otter
• 6. The tamarisk tree
• 7. Silent witnesses
• 8. The gardener
• 9. Sun, moon and stars
• 10. The olive tree
• 11. Tree stumps
• 12. The woodwose
• 13. The cedar trees
• 14. Hazels of wisdom
• 15. St Columbanus and the bear
• 16. All that breathes, praise the Lord
• 17. The Green Man and the three hares
• 18. Jesus in the wild places
• 19. St Melangell
• 20. St Aidan
• 21. St Hubert and the stag
• 22. The lion and the lamb
• 23. St Kevin and God’s mercy
• 24. The forests of Badenoch
• 25. The Beast
• 26. The greatest law
• 27. Elijah in the desert
• 28. Along the riverbank