My owner and his wife have recently returned home from southern Costa Rica where they spent a couple of weeks enjoying the tropical rain forests.
Yes, rain forests are rather like Nature’s version of human cities, because a lot of high-rise living takes place in them. Many trees reach at least 35 meters in height, while some, -like the Kapok tree, -can grow as tall as 60 meters. (Yes, Kapoks are the ultimate lookout posts for local parrots!) And most of these huge trees serve as hosts to all kinds of different life-forms. Their branches are adorned with bromeliads, ferns and lichen, and they offer a wonderful refuge to many kinds of insects, frogs, animals and birds. So you could say that these giants of the forest are true ‘givers,’ in that they help to support so much of the rain forest life around them.
But not all rain forest trees are so benevolent. No, because as is so often the case, there is a villain in the mix, -none other than the Strangler Fig. These figs give little back; instead they simply take for themselves in an act of self-interest. A passing bird usually deposits a fig seed high up on a branch of the host tree. As the seed germinates, it sends roots into the host tree, feeding off the nutrients that it has worked so hard to provide for itself. The fig continues to grow bigger and bigger, sending out aerial roots which will eventually stretch down to the ground, enveloping the host in the process, and ultimately strangling it to death. In the end, the fig tree is left standing in place of its original host.
And I reckon that the story of these trees reflects the story of human life around us. Because the human world is also full of both givers and takers. Some humans put the needs of others ahead of their own, and by giving out, they help to make the world a better place. But there are also those who are obsessed with promoting their own self-interest, which they so often do at the expense of others. Humans are meant to be the ultimate triumph of creation, and yet all around the world right now, there are examples of human leaders and business tycoons who are behaving just like these Strangler Figs. For now, they believe they are untouchable, but the time will come when they too, will topple over, and become nothing more than a pile of soil on the forest floor. And all because they lacked the wisdom and humility to see beyond this present world. Which is why, in God’s world, the poorest will become the greatest, and the greatest will be left with nothing at all.
“The measure of a life is not its duration, but its donation.”
(Corrie ten Boon: [1892-1983]: Dutch Christian author and speaker who survived internment in a W.W.2 Nazi concentration camp)
“Man should not consider his material possessions his own, but as common to all so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.” (Thomas Aquinas: [1225 – 1274]: Italian Dominican friar and priest and very influential philosopher)
“Many are poor because they rob God.”
(Charles Spurgeon: [1834 – 1892]: English Baptist Minister, still referred to today as the ‘Prince of Preachers.’)
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