20 Mar ‘Goodbye’ Dear Friend, ‘Hello’ New Wonder
As we enter Autumn and the leaves begin to fall around us like golden sprinkles from the remnant glory of summer, it’s always an opportunity to reflect on the different seasons and what unique beauty each season holds. Personally, I always tend to be a bit nostalgic at the end of summer, especially because in the Southern Hemisphere, the end of summer is also a goodbye to a season of festivity: Christmas celebrations spent in the pool, laughing with loved ones, warm evenings of sizzling meat smoking the air with delicious aromas and of course the promise which the new year holds. However, this nostalgia is often short-lived as I choose to embrace the new season, knowing the guarantee that spring will arrive again when the time comes and with it a new flourishing of treasured memories.
This year, I find myself reflecting on one particular tree, which stands outside our house and failed to bloom this summer. During the year, unbeknownst to us, it had become diseased and was consequently strangled by vines. It was a large beautiful flat-crown which towered over our little lane and brushed the edges of our roof, casting cooling shade over our garden and providing a perch for many species of birds. We experienced many quiet moments enjoying the green branches sweeping the backdrop view of the ocean’s horizon, with afternoon sunlight casting silhouettes of fluttering butterflies completing the picture.
When Spring arrived, we watched in anticipation to glimpse the first green buds, but, by December, its branches remained skeletal and unlively.
Farewell to a beloved tree
It might sound crazy that we almost experienced the five stages of grief over a tree, but we did. At first, we didn’t give up hope. We kept looking for buds and sometimes believed we had seen a flicker of green, only to realise it was from another tree, or light catching a dead leaf. Eventually, we began to despair and felt the ache that this beautiful tree, thriving just one year before, could have died so suddenly. I started to worry, was this God sending us a sign? I then began to bargain with God, praying that He would miraculously revive the tree — yes, I prayed over a tree! When no miracle occurred and we began to mourn the loss of the flat-crown, it was then pointed out to us that the tree was now in fact a danger to our home and pedestrians on the road outside, and for safety, we should consider having it cut down. This was when we were forced into accepting that we had to say goodbye to this beloved tree.
New Beauty Revealed
While at first, stepping outside onto the deck was a bit sad, looking at the bare arms that were now more like cracks in an otherwise masterful painting, one day we caught sight of vibrant red, swaying in the tree next to our now, dead Flat Crown. The Flamboyant tree which stands on the opposite side of our driveway, just as tall, just as luscious as the Flat Crown once was, but a tree we had never really noticed, had flowered. How could this be possible? Something so pretty, like scarlet droplets of sunset, they danced with radiance. Had they always been there and we had simply missed them because of our gaze being transfixed on our beloved Flat Crown, or had God gifted us with a new wonder to admire in the wake of the loss of the tree we loved so much?
God’s Ultimate Promise
Many of us have suffered the loss of a loved one in our lives, some recent, some long ago, but the pain still lingers. Sometimes it’s not even the physical death that causes our sense of loss, but the loss of friendship or relationship, or even a significant change in a relationship, which leaves us longing for the past. But I believe what God revealed to us through the passing of the Flat Crown tree and the discovered beauty of the Flamboyant tree, is that He never takes anything away without bringing new beauty and wonder into our lives. And with the right lens, the change is often even more profound and poignant. This I believe is His promise over our lives while we are in this world, and His ultimate promise for when we transcend into the next.
I would like to end with Ecclesiastes 3 which highlights the changing seasons of life, even when it seems that one season has ended for good, there is always another season that will bring us deeper into His love.
“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Ecclesiastes 3: 1-4 NIV
Prayer
Father God, thank you for your redemptive love and hand over our lives. I lift in prayer all those who are currently suffering the loss of someone or something they hold dear. Please comfort them and gently turn their gaze to the beauty you are revealing in their lives day by day, and your ultimate promise through your son Jesus Christ, Amen.
I am a volunteer blogger with a passion for God and writing. My hope is to help others choose faith – or to walk deeper in their faith – through my own introspections and observations.
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