Do Tree Rings And Souls Look The Same?
Do tree rings and souls look the same? Most would probably answer in the negative. I suppose such an answer begs another question. What do souls look like? You may be wondering why anyone would even think to ask these questions. I will try to explain.
How do you feel? I am not asking about your physical health. Does your soul feel and illuminate as profoundly as Dante describes Beatrice when he saw her in heaven? Let me remind you what Dante wrote.
Silently then, I raised my eyes alone and saw her wreathed with the eternal rays reflecting all around like a crown. The farthest straining of our mortal gaze to see the realm of thunders at its height, to the most abandoned bottom of the seas, Is not so far as Beatrice was from sight, but that had no effect since it was through no medium that her form came down to me.
“Lady in whom my hope is green anew, who suffered for my healing, and deigned to leave your footprints in the lands below, It was your power and excellence that sustained my pilgrimage to see all I have seen; to you I owe the grace and strength I’ve gained. I was a slave; you brought me liberty, through every road I walked, by every means you had within your power to succor me.
Preserve in me your work’s magnificence so that my soul, which you have healed, one day will please you when it slips the body’s hands.” I prayed–and she, who was far away as she appeared, yet smiled and looked at me, then turned again to the eternal Spring. (Paradise Canto Thirty-One Lines 70-93, translated by Anthony Esolen)
Oftentimes, we don’t feel or see that radiant light.
Oftentimes, we don’t feel or see the radiant light described by Dante. We often feel small, maybe even as small as the most minor bug crawling across a tree stump. Many believe that the rings on the stump indicate the seasons of plentiful rainfall, good growth, and oppressive heat and drought. And perhaps our souls have scars like an old tree stump. Yet maybe we are merely thinking small as a bug, and those tree rings are not on our souls but in our lives. You see, in our lives, we must navigate across difficulties, things that stump us (pun intended), and we lose our confidence.
Maybe our journey up and down hills resembles those tree rings we see on stumps. Think of a bug crawling across a stump. Additionally, think of that stump as a map of the history of our life’s journey. An incline is a season of difficulty, just as a ring may represent a two-dimensional replica of a season to a tree.
When we overcome one difficulty and reach the peak, we see easy traveling ahead. Meanwhile, another problematic climb is on the horizon.
I like the road in these photographs very much. I learned to drive on this road while driving a pickup truck with a bumper pull trailer full of cattle. Yes, I drove up and down these hills when I was a 15-year-old boy.
An old tree stump
I apologize if this is hard to follow. When we focus on the difficulties in our journey, perhaps our souls feel like an old dry tree stump. It is easy to feel that way. My father was killed in a tractor accident in a field along this road. The Beatrice of my life buried her brother in a town along this road. I often think of the mistakes I made and how a part of me died when her brother died. It is very easy to ponder the trauma and the drama and for our soul to begin to rot like an old tree stump. But somehow, we must transform our thinking and be spiritually mature enough to offer solutions to a world that is desperate for help.
How Do We Feel Better?
Do tree rings and souls look the same? I think not. I suppose they could, but they shouldn’t. So, how do we get our souls to shine like Dante’s Beatrice? How do we get our soul “wreathed with the eternal rays reflecting all around like a crown?”
The Apostle Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So, how do we renew our minds? Christopher Cook writes that “the act of transformation involves not merely changing our minds but also revealing our core motivations and mindsets so that when our hearts are revealed, we can be healed.” (Pg 191– Healing What You Can’t Erase)
For me, that is easier said than done. I believe praise to God is necessary. We need to praise God even when difficulties surround us. We have to get our minds off of what we think we need to do to solve the problem and concentrate on what God can do:
Psalm 27: 3-5
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to meditate in his temple.
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.
Dear Reader Remember
Life is a journey. We have to pursue a continual renewing of our minds. We can’t read Paul in Romans 12:2 about renewing our mind one time and forget about it. It is a daily activity for each step we take in every season.