The Tree

As we were driving back to the campsite, this picture got my attention. I LOVE ironies captured on film. I have one of a gorgeously restored, white and gold cathedral that simply takes your breath away- and when I went to frame the photo in my viewfinder, there was a dirty mop and bucket in the aisle w/no way of getting around it. The sacred and the profane, the breathtaking and the mundane- caught juxtaposed in a single scene. Now I have this one........
All around, there is lush greenery- green, green grass covering mildly rolling hills; tall, proud, green trees creating a living backdrop; and here and there smaller groves of yet more lively, very alive green trees.
And then, there is this one, lone stark dead tree. Juxtaposition- and an example of what I see all around me. To add a bit to the perspective, the second picture is from a different angle, showing that the dead tree is near the edge of a cemetery- bit of a fitting placement!
Just like the dead tree stood out in stark contrast to the life around it, 'dead' things do in real human life, as well (dead things being what is not of God, things leading to death). It would seem to me that, in the quest for 'new and different', that dead trees are being valued as 'beautiful' and 'artistic', and the living, green things seen as boring and mundane. While there is something striking about such a contrast, to begin to shift a definition of beautiful (talking about more than just the tree here) so drastically is to change many things at once, and you end up skewed in your perception of things. To begin to see death as cool, wonderful and beautiful skews many things- and I see such thinking abounding in much of the 'pop' parts of our culture. To the degree that real, living things now stand out in stark contrast.
Please God spare me from such a shift in my thinking and perceiving.
"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." Colossians 3:1-2 Keep me seeking the things above.
Just pondering.....and sharing a bit...
DebiDew