It’s strange how things keep moving. Our hearts and minds may be at a standstill but everything keeps moving. No matter the blow, the second hand keeps ticking at the same speed. Sometimes we try to be the clock that keeps ticking but we aren’t so consistent or reliable. Funny how such unstable beings exist in such a stable environment. Flowers and trees are never heard screaming or crying. Rocks continue being rocks after having been cracked in two. Street signs stand alone and unmoving all day like teddy bears to comfort us as we toss and turn on beds made of pavement. Some days appear slower while others are just a means by which to run to the next.

“Take me,” he says, “Take me. I’m here and I’m all yours.” Only he never really says anything. It’s written on his arms and whistles through his fingers. Sometimes I think the trees are laughing at me as if to say, “I have no brain yet have accomplished more in my life than you would or could in ten lifetimes.” We’re so arrogant walking and talking like we own the place. We think we’re so much more advanced than the rest of existence, but what evidence have we on which to make this claim?

The trees don’t talk, walk, or voluntarily move. And they stand there as if yielding all of their being to something else. They’re motionless and speechless while producing fruit from every possible inch they know how. They tick with the clocks and never miss a beat simultaneously declaring submission to other and offering every part of self to anything or anyone that so desires.

We can barely hold a job and remember once our card is punched that anyone other than self exists. Our fruit rarely grows and when it does it rots quickly. Our complaint is we have no time to rest as well as no time to bless. We’ve denied and removed life from itself, replacing it with decay. Somewhere someone told us a lie.

We complain about the difficulty of harmonizing work and worship. “There’s no time,” we say. “How do you expect us to support ourselves and families while living this life you keep telling me to live? I’m no fool. There’s a time and place for everything. My time and place is to be realistic and logical never neglecting my family.” And the trees just stand and laugh. Not because they see little worth in family or responsibility but that an individual would argue it can’t be done.

Primitive they are in our eyes; the simplicity of their existence evidences their inferiority to our being. We can trace our progress as well as theirs. Ours fills books while theirs is stagnant. Trees just are. We hold committees to discuss needs that must be met while trees silently meet the needs that never cross our minds. The trees never fail to provide for those dependent upon them.

Jesus was known to say, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Sometimes I think the trees have the biggest ears. It seems the majority of the time we believe we’ll solve things by running our mouths. And it may be with good intent. We sit around tables sharing thoughts, drinking coffee, and adjusting our spectacles… and the trees just laugh.

Trees don’t fight.

Trees don’t argue.

They continue to echo in every way they know how… “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).