Dave Gillan

A lot of people dont know this about me but i just love trees.

Now i'm not a tree hugger, i'm not prone to going around cuddling up to a tree or two or anything but i just love looking at trees. Up close or from a distance looking at a hillside covered in trees. Going out in the car with the wife im often looking at the area im in and getting lost in the look of trees.

So, this makes Autumn my favourite time of the year. With a variety of colours with all differnet shades of green, brown, black, white and others it just appeals to me.

Iv'e also seen some amazing shapes with trees. Up at Kilvarock castle up in the highlands there was a tree that the branches stretched down to the ground and then went along the ground and sprung up like small trees.

So, yes trees have an appeal for me.

The question your all probably asking yourself just now is, Why?

Well, the simple fact is, trees remind me of people. Every time i look i see a person. People of all different sizes, shapes and colours. Some doing well, some struggling in growth, some clinging on for life while others thriving in the hardest of conditions, some clumping together with their own kind while others grow on their own and in many other areas people are very similar to trees. 

Yet trees have another area that makes me think of people. Trees are all grounded in the same earth. It doesnt matter where you are on the planet, trees need grounding and its all the same earth. Whether it's on a side of a mountain or the bottom half in water, they all have their roots in the earth and they all struggle to have their own piece to survive but ultimately they are grounded in the dirt of the ground and are connected in a way some of us dont even see or understand.

We too are all grounded in a common area that a lot of people just dont see at times, we are all grounded in God.

No matter where you are on this world, we have a common purpose together as living beings and that is to have a relationship with God, just like the trees being interlinked with the earth in relationship we too are also interlinked to God in some way. Some people have a good relationship and some people have a bad relationship, but at the end of the day, we cant escape the fact that we are all interlinked in some way through a connection with God.

A bit of a stretch here but Jesus also talks about our relationship.

Jesus said (I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.) John 15:5-7

Without a relationship with God, through Jesus we can be sure that our relationship is effected, just like trees, people need grounding, need nurturing, food, light and other things that are required to live the way they are meant to.

So, yes, i love trees, but more importantly it helps me ground my relationship with Jesus as i look at people who need to be loved.

The question is, where are you grounded today?