Everywhere All At Once

I believe in the mysterious God expressed in nature.

To me, the best expression of a loving God is evidenced in the abundance of and the diversity of trees found in nature. A metaphor, so to speak. Even our fingerprints and rings on a cut tree resemble one another!

A while back, when I was bored, i sat by a window and counted the branches of a spruce and how it has changed over the course of 5 years since I have lived in my home.

Lo and behold I noticed something I never thought of before. Prior to this day, I always through trees grew in 2 different directions at the same time. Towards the sky and towards the earth. One rooted in the heavens and one striving to dig deeper into the ground.

But on this day those marvelous and industrious makers of oxygen than allow humans to live on this planet, it occurred to me that trees grow in all directions. North, south, east and west. Their limbs reach for the latitude and longitude that surround out planet. Growth, in all directions.

Healthy trees thrive and grow all at once in every direction. Their limbs reach not only upward but also to each side. And their roots reach down toward nutrients and soil. Their food is water and sun, but also nutrients and microbes in the soil.

Sometimes the soil can be contaminated, as with weed killers and such. Sometimes insects can also damage the lifespan of a tree. And sometimes it is all of the above, everywhere all at once.

I believe trees mirror our human bodies in these ways. We too, grow in all directions all at once. Physically, metabolically, intellectually and spiritually. So sometimes, what happens in one part of the body affects the other life forces.

Fertilizer, water, sun, trees need these to survive, as do we humans. We need food and water to drink and sunlight for our immune system. We also need the O2 that trees create for our benefit and the rest of mankind. Without it, life as we know it could not be sustained.

“From a stroll through a city park to a day spent hiking in the wilderness, exposure to nature has been linked to a host of benefits, including improved attention, lower stress, better mood, reduced risk of psychiatric disorders, and even upticks in empathy and cooperation,” a 2020 article of the American Psychological Association said.