The old white box stands sentinel, resolute and resilient, in the middle of our front paddock. Older, perhaps, than colonisation, this tree has borne steady witness, weathering – and outliving – each seasonal challenge. We were present for a lightning strike, several years ago, blasting off a limb, and some resolve.

Still, she stands.  

​In the first words offered to us by the Psalmist, we hear

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

A podcast asked the question this week, what sort of tree would you imagine yourself to be?

Sit for a moment, and ponder. What tree do you imagine yourself to be? Consider your leaves and twigs and boughs, your roots and bark, your canopy. What feeds you? Where are the streams which nourish you?

At the Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture this week, Stan Grant noted that the steady diet for our community includes UberEats and Married At First Sight. The distance and the anti-hospitality of an anonymous food carrier, and the bastardisation of relationship and covenant. Nourishment, indeed.

The psalmist talks of “scoffers”, a term barely used these days. Perhaps they are those who mocked Christ at the cross; more normally, they are those whose words are designed to chip and chasten, with cynicism in their commentary and muttered criticism for things they can’t tolerate or imagine.

We meet them in ourselves when tired or discouraged. We meet them in others, and it is most disabling when we are beginning to hope, or act, again. Their voices whisper in our churches and communities, thinking themselves clever. However, at their best, all they can offer is hindrance.

Think of what water feeds your soul, quenches your thirst, refreshes you. What story of Jesus, what experience of others, what song you sing, which poem or performance, lifts you to life and hope?

Which experience of Jesus might you be courageous enough to believe will give life to others, and would you offer it? Imagine that, in tendering your story of hope and life, others will prosper in their turn, growing into the life created for them in Christ.