One delight that has resulted from studying Ephesians with all of you who read this, is communicating with Christine Holmes who lives half way across the world from me. I’ve shared some of her comments before. This one really hit home, as I am reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, for the second time. God’s patterns of creation that we see in nature are repeated over and over in this world.

Thank you, Christine, for once more digging into Ephesians and sharing your thoughts with us.

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Last week was National Tree Day here in Australia…

Asked to share our favorite quotes about trees I thought of Dame Judi Dench’s program called “My Passion for Trees” which is able to be viewed online. (A BBC production)

In this program Judi is discussing a forest with Professor Lynne Boddy and they are looking at what lies beneath the soil – fungi threads a little like a power line that run between the roots of the individual trees connecting them and acting as a communicator, decomposer and even able to let trees share food and water to other trees in distress. Judi says “ A forest like this is a very, very social place. Everybody is sharing and passing everything to everybody else”.

When I read through the New Living Translation version of the scripture, especially 16-

“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

I thought about this extraordinary system of fungi designed by our amazing creator God and I am not surprised at all to find a similarity between God’s perfect design in nature and His perfect design for the church.

We are in some cases individual trees growing and being shaped by God, but we are also like a forest- connected by faith in Christ  and by the Holy Spirit working in the whole church for God’s glory.