A couple of gum trees

Veronica and I spent a good part of Monday enjoying some time out on a River Cat trip to Sydney and then we had a wander around the Rocks, Opera House and Botanical Gardens. The day happened to be our wedding anniversary and seeing as how we honeymooned in Sydney we kind of retraced a few of our steps. Now, it has to be admitted then when we married the Opera House had not yet been opened; but it was well into construction! We could see what its finished shape would be.

NorthWest Uniting Church’s official photographer took a picture that had three iconic symbols of Sydney framed. In the forgeround two red gum trees, then the OPera House and a backdrop of the Harbour Bridge.

The two Eucalypts are said to be the oldest trees remaining in the Sydney CBD, possible dating back before white settlement. At the very least they were there when sailing ships and row boats were the only vessels seen on the harbour.

The big coat hanger in the background connected the city to its northern suburb just over 70 years ago and of course the Opera House is a relatively new arrival on the landscape.

If only those two trees could talk; what a story they could tell.

As I consider these three icons from three different periods in Sydney’s history I think about our journey here in the North West of Sydney and wonder what kind of story we could tell. As long as the traffic is kind to me I always enjoy seeing those great pylons as I approach the harbour bridge, and I enjoy the trip across the harbour, while at the same time preparing myself for the drama just moments way as I enter the city and try to park the car. The Opera House is now seen as one the world’s great buildings and we are privileged to have it sitting at the entrance to Sydney much as the Statue of Liberty dominates New Yorks harbour entrance.

Up until last Monday I had never taken any notice of those two gum trees; yet now they are of more significance to me than the two man-made attractions in the above picture. They make me consider again the words in Psalm 1:

'They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do they prosper.’ Psalm 1:3

To have stood where they have for so many years those two trees must have a life source not immediately visible to the human eye. They have been battered by many hundreds of storms and slowly seen many of their mates disappear in the name of ‘progress’. Despite the pollution of a modern city, to my untrained eye they still looked strong and appear to have many years left in them. As tall as they stand, to grow so high, they have had to sink their roots to depths that we cannot imagine. The key to their health is found in what you cannot see rather than what is presented to us.

It is my hope and desire that we can be a people that grow deep. So much of life today is about what we can see. The latest ‘reality’ show is something to do with looking 10 years younger. I have told the story before of the time when I went with a family to view their deceased father before the funeral service. The classic line for me was when a daughter said ‘Doesn’t he look well?’ Now, the Funeral Directors had done a top job, but one thing this dear man was not, was well! He was dead!!

Many years ago now I was inspired to go deeper in my new faith by these words: ‘I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe’ Ephesians 1:17-19.

I pray that we can be a people who go deep and can therefore leave an inheritance for many, many years to come.