Flickr, phphoto2010. Used under a creative commons license.
One of the big drawbacks of christianity, for me, is that it was invented in a part of the world without the seasons I’m used to. The things that are most significant for me meant nothing to the folks writing the bible; am I supposed to believe that the whole spectacular yearly parade that shapes my life in the northern hemisphere is spiritually meaningless?
Honestly, if I had to choose between nature and christianity I would choose nature in a heartbeat. But it doesn’t have a church, at least not in my neighborhood. Nature falls down on the organizational side.
My church is a pretty exploratory one, so we did a parlor class on the spiritual meaning of autumn. If the bible doesn’t have what we need, we will make it up ourselves — so we focused on the two images of the trees turning and the birds migrating, on what we saw in them, which one we identified with the most, and what insights they give us into different virtues.
Herewith our first stab at the spiritual insights to be drawn from the things happening around us in fall:
I find this comparison really useful. Myself, I’m a tree. The things I aspire to almost all fall in the tree column, and hospitality is the virtue I most associate with them. But I have friends who are definitely birds! In our study group at church, we were split 50:50 between those who considered themselves following the path of trees and those following the path of birds.
Our church is gearing up for Divine Intervention, in which we offer winter shelter for the night to 20-25 of the local homeless ‘campers,’ as they prefer to be called. The tree and bird images couldn’t have come at a better time.
Flickr – Keith Williams. Used under a Creative Commons license
