As I was walking around the Jesuit Spiritual Center the other day, I took notice of the trees on the property in a more profound way. I always loved the trees the Good Lord fastened here. We have wide, tall trees with deep, healthy roots. It is truly a marvel that such a small seed grows into something so magnificent and expansive.
I pondered how prolific and diverse God is. God can’t just create one type of thing, like this large tree I was gazing upon with awe. It is as if just one type of a creation would be boring to Him. He does not simply make a tree or a forest of the same sort of tree, either, He makes multiple types of trees…and these trees do not grow uniformly. Many trees are not completely straight- they have irregularities, and they tend to cluster and overlap each other in a beautiful mess. Similarly, God cannot simply make a flower and multiply that same flower many times…instead, He makes each flower uniquely, even if it is the same species. Then, He makes different species of that flower. And not just two or three species, but thousands. Likewise, these trees and flowers make up the home of not just one kind of birds, but many. Listen and you will hear a chorus of different bird melodies that together create their own harmony.
My friends, we do not have a boring or blind Creator. There is no “dead end” in Him. He is ever new and inexhaustible. Look at the various types of people there are in the world. Sometimes such an array of differences leads to conflict and confusion. How often do we get a headache over our own variety? And yet, God keeps on creating. What a beautiful array of personalities, backgrounds, and perspectives! How boring it would be if we were all the same. After all, the Body of Christ would not be able to function if we were all the same part. Let us remember in the month of October, the month of the Holy Rosary and prolife causes, to pray especially for all human life to be received and cared for with utmost dignity. Because God did not make any life in a half-hazard way, even if one seems to be born into a mess or must encounter suffering. We are more splendid than the trees I pondered, because, unlike the trees, the flowers, and birds- we are all especially designed for the Lord. Jesus tells us,
“Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?” – Matthew 6:26
Each human soul has purpose in Christ’s Love. Were we not created to be more magnificent and expansive than the trees, even with all our own knots, twists, and gnarling branches? How deep, wide, and sturdy could God’s grace make us? Let us take a lesson, then, that nature teaches us- we are a beautiful mess, and our perfection lays in the Heart of Our unconventional and perfect Creator. Let us not be at fault for limiting God by our earthly perspectives on what we can do to care and prosper each other.
