Christmas Confusion

One of the memories of my childhood was winters with lots of snow.

Christmastime in New England

At Christmastime, we would go to the Christmas tree farm down the road and we would wade through the snow to find a tree as tall as my dad.

Our 6-Foot Tall Tree

My brain still associates Christmas trees with snow. And so when I see the Christmas tree in the house where we are now staying and the golden leaves on the mulberry tree through the window behind it, I get a sense that something is off—something is out of place—something is not as it should be. I see both fall and winter at the same time, and my brain is confused.

Christmas Trees and Yellow Leaves

This year I think the whole world has felt that way. Whole economies are shaken by COVID-19.  Social distancing has redefined how we do relationships. Systemic racism has given rise to protests and riots. US Elections have turned into a political circus. Like my snowless Christmas tree, something seems very off. Can we please just have some normal?

Christmas is the time we remember Jesus coming to tell us that same message—that something is off—something is not how it should be. The world is marred by sin. Everything is affected. All relationships suffer from sin's poison in our lives. We weren't designed for this. We were designed for an intimate life with the Creator in a world unstained by sin. We were designed to have relationships without conflict and worlds without war. But everything is broken and needs to be fixed. So God sent His Son, the Prince of Peace, so that we can have a restored relationship with God and with each other.

For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
   and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor,Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

So if things seem unusual this year—if things seem out of place—we need to remember that the world has always been that way. It's just that this year many things have happened to remind us of just how broken this world really is.

Christmas comes at a good time. We could use a little reminder that Jesus came into the world to show us how different things can be. We may not attain to it in our lifetimes, but when Jesus comes back, He will show us what normal is really like.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
   and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
   and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
   their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
   and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;
   for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:6-9 (ESV)

Flambouyant Memories

Recently, as we were driving back from Fao Rai district, where we were teaching English and guitar, we passed a beautiful tree.  The tree goes by a couple names, royal poinciana and, very appropriately, flamboyant.

Viewed up close, the flowers are especially pretty. The white "banner" petal tends to turn more yellow as the bloom ages, giving the tree an orangeish hue as in the picture above.

Occasionally, one might see and orange-flowered variety.

The seed pods are quite large (that is my size 14 foot).  The pods can be carved as handicrafts.  They can be used as musical shakers when dry.  The seeds are very hard and are used as beads.

But what struck me today was a memory of the first time I ever saw a flamboyant tree.  In 1981, we would drive past a flamboyant tree on the way to Amani-y beach near the town of Saint Marc in Haiti.

Flambouyant Tree on the Way to Amani-y Beach

This beach was a place our team would go on occasion to take a break from working in a village above the town of Saint Marc.

Amani-y Beach

The infrastructure was not well maintained, but there were always people nearby to sell a soft drink or make lunch. Casuarina trees (Australian pine) had been planted which gave a little shade.

One of the amazing things about this beach, was that it was right on the edge of the bay.  The bay is quite deep and the water at the time was very clear.  At the north side of the beach, there is an underwater cliff and the water goes from about 2 meters deep to 25 meters or more deep.  In spite of the depth, you could still see the bottom.  I loved to snorkel over the top of the bluff.  The dark blue water in the background of the first photo is where the water depth changed.

Best thing about the beach was the pretty girl

I have no idea what condition the beach is in these days.  When we returned to Haiti about 5 years after these photos were taken, the water was already getting cloudy from the soil being washed off the mountains.  But I'm glad to have memories of the time when the water was still nice.

Not only has Haiti changed a lot in the last 40 years, we have as well.  My hope is that, instead of worsening with time, we would become better.

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.  Ecclesiastes 7:8 (ESV)

Bookends 2018

How do we look at life? Are we pessimists or optimists? Are we stuck in the past or are we hopeful about the future?

For the past several years I've done a blog with photos from the beginning and ending of the year.  As I was looking through photos, trying to decide what to pick, I realized that my choices show how I look at my life.  Someone else might have chosen different pictures.  (A saying I have is: There are two kinds of journalists.  Those who are biased and recognize what their bias is--and tell others.  And then there are those who are biased and don't think they are.)

I could have done nearly-identical pictures.  On January first, we had several of the youth over from church to make fritters or, as some call them, New Years cookies.  On December 31st we were making a batch for a New Years eve service at church.  These would be people oriented photos.

But I decided to use some different photos. I'm not a great people photographer.

While we tend to choose our sandwiches based on what is in the middle, we also want to choose our bread.  So while these photos don't represent the meat of what happened this year, they are like the slices of bread I choose to put the meat between.

January 1st falls close to my birthday. I told my wife that I don't really want to acquire things for my birthday. I'd rather just go to a park somewhere.  So we decided to go to Phu Phrabat Historical Park. It turned out to be the first of three trips to the park that year.

Phu Phrabat Park is focused around some interesting rock formations that were used as housing and places of worship many, many years ago.  There are even red-colored petroglyphs which have a character similar to those I would see in the American west.  If you want to see that side of things, as well as photos of the fancy restrooms, check out my flickr album from the park.

What I like about the park are the nice walking trails with varied scenery.  It just happened to be the season that some of the dipterocarp trees were blooming.  I picked up a blossom and stuck it in a mossy log, because I like the color contrast.

Dipterocarp flower on mossy log

Dipterocarp trees were once very common in northern and northeast Thailand.  They grow in humid climates with long dry seasons.  They don't seem to be bothered by the fact that it doesn't hardly rain for six months.  They just drop their leaves to cope with the dry season much as trees where I grew up would drop their leaves to cope with the cold.  There are many species in the plant family Dipterocarpaceae.  Most have winged seeds; the seed pictured below is the same species as the bloom above.  We big kids sometimes enjoy throwing them in the air and watching them helicopter down.

Dipterocarp winged fruit

Most species of the Dipterocarp genus get quite tall and the branches tend to be clustered at the top. This can make recognizing species difficult because it is often hard to see the leaves on the tree-you have to look at leaves and flowers that have fallen to the ground.

One thing that is nice about the Isaan region (as opposed to central or northern Thailand) is that the farmers often leave native trees in their rice paddies.  So one sees perhaps more of the big giants that used to cover the region before they were all cut down to put in farms.  Sometimes I'll even see masses of the pink flowers that have fallen off a tree onto the road.

Which brings be to the photo for the end of the year.

While many of our Canadian friends and relatives might be whining about the cold at this time of year (I would be if I was there), here in Thailand we are enjoying the cold winters.  It's nice when the temps drop into the 60s (15-20 C) at night.

While I tend to ride my bicycle all year round here, it is perhaps most enjoyable in the winter.  And so I found myself doing a leisurely bike ride on New Years Eve day.  This day I was staying on the dirt roads as much as possible because of the very busy highways during the New Years Holiday season.

My trip this day brought me past an old oxbow of the Huai Luang river that they put a dam in to form Huai Kan Lueang Reservoir.  The reservoir is on both sides of a minor highway and right now they are excavating dirt on one side to make it deeper and using the dirt to fill in the other side.

A consequence of this dirt fill operation is that I can now get up close to water lilies that used to be in the middle of the swamp.  On this morning, it had started out cloudy, but the clouds were moving off to the west so the flowers were in the sun.

Pink water lilies

The water levels in Huai Kan Lueang have dropped considerably since wet season.  As the water levels drop, some of the area is used to grow rice, as pictured below.

Ironic that this area was under water a few months ago. Now the farmer is using his tiller motor to drive a pump to irrigate his rice paddy.  Along one of the berms there are palm trees.  These are oil palms.  The fruits are are crushed to extract the oil. There is a significant acreage planted to oil palms in this part of Thailand.

Rice paddies and oil palms

Oil Palm Fruits

And so my year has brought me from the forest to the field and lots of places in between.  But when I woke up on January 1st of this year, I was happy that some things did not change.  I woke up next to the same wife.  The sun rose again like it has everyday.  And God's great love for us was still there.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  1 John 5:9, 10

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Pretty vs. Pretty

Ah! English!

What an interesting language I have grown up with.

In a tree in our yard, there are some pretty red flowers.

Pretty red flowers

The problem is that these red flowers are growing out of a mango tree.

But they are not mango flowers.  These are mango flowers:

Mango flowers

The red flowers are growing on a parasitic plant.  This plant makes seeds that germinate on the branches of the tree and then tap into the trees vascular system of the tree for nutrients.  Let the host tree do all the work of making roots and getting water and nutrients from the soil.

So, pretty flowers, yes.

But pretty nasty as well.

(Somehow our language got to the point where "pretty" can end up being an adjective meaning "beautiful" and also an adverb meaning "very".  So we can say that one thing is pretty while another is pretty ugly, and they are opposites.  And why do we then say "very pretty" vs. "pretty pretty".  This is all pretty confusing.)

You see, the more pretty red flowers that the tree has, the fewer mangos it will have.  And I like mangos.  Mangos are my favorite fruit.  They're the reason I moved to Thailand.  (Well, not exactly, but close.)

A lot of mango goodness here

So, I'm left with a choice.

Do I want some pretty red flowers?

Or do I want some pretty tasty fruit?

I could leave the parasites on the tree, and have both red and yellow (mango) flowers.  But the mango production would be reduced more and more with time.

Life is like that.  Often are choices aren't between good and bad or right and wrong.   The choices are often between one way and a better way.

The apostle Paul writes about about a "better way" in 1 Corinthians 12, and 13.  In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is talking about the use of spiritual gifts in the church.  In the church, the body of Christ, we are each given different gifts in order to help build up the church.  1 Corinthians 12:31 we read:

But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

And then Paul goes on to talk about love.

It's great to desire spiritual gifts, but if we don't use our gifts in love, we are just like resounding gongs or clanging cymbals.

Or pretty, parasitic flowers.

In Phon Phisai, we have this nice community of new believers.  Most of them knew nothing about Christ until just a few months ago.  One of the challenges we have now is helping them to discover and use their spiritual gifts to help build each other up in the body of Christ.  But it is so much more than that.  It is about loving each other and using our gifts, with that love, to help build each other up.   We want to have a church of people who give, not just take.  Pretty flowers that bear fruit, not just parasites.

A Touch of Gold

Yellow is the King’s color.  Consequently it is popular to plant things with yellow flowers.  It’s amazing how many tree species there are with yellow flowers.  Not only are there planted trees, there are a lot of wild ones as well.

Today when I was bicycling I was surprised to see a bunch of unfamiliar yellow blooms on the road that had fallen off of a tree.  I quickly turned my bike around to investigate.  As I picked up a bloom, it was apparent to me that it must be some kind of gardenia.  A quick sniff caught a pleasant fragrance that seemed to confirm this.

The Golden Gardenia is native to the dry forests of Thailand (“dry” meaning that there is a significant dry season when many trees lose their leaves.)

Gardenia sootepensis (Rubiaceae)
Golden Gardenia, คำมอกหลวง

When I think of all the amazing diversity just in the yellow flowers of Thailand, I am in awe of such a creative God that could put such things together.  I think of the King of Thailand, who appears quite majestic when decked out in his golden outfits, yet which pales in comparison to the clothing that God has placed on his creation.

Jesus said: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:28, 29)

Below is a sampling of some of the yellow flowered trees in Thailand.  Were I to add shrubs, and ground covers and vines, it would be a much larger set of photos.

Tabebuia aurea (Bignoniaceae)
Silver Trumpet Tree, เหลืองปรีดียาธร

Cochlospermum religiosum (Bixaceae)
Silk-cotton tree ฝ้ายคำ

Cochlospermum regium (Bixaceae)
yellow cotton tree, ฝ้ายคำ

Pterocarpus indicus (Fabaceae: Faboideae)
paduak, ประดู่บ้าน

Peltophorum inerme (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae)
Yellow poinciana, นนทรี

Cajanus cajan (Fabaceae: Faboideae)
pigeonpea, ถั่วแระ

Acacia auriculiformis (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae)
Black Wattle, กระถินณรงค์

Senna surattensis (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae)
scrambled eggs, ทรงบาดาล

Cassia fistula (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae)
golden shower tree, ราชพฤกษ์

Cassia alata (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae)
Candle bush, ชุมเห็ดเทศ

Senna spectabilis (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae)
สุวรรณพฤกษ์

Senna siamea (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae)
Siamese cassia, ขี้เหล็กไทย

Ochna integerrima (Ochnaceae)
Mickey Mouse Tree, มิกกี้เมาส์, ช้างน้าว

Hidden Color

It’s not the same as where I grew up.

Nothing can quite compare with all of the amazing color displays we would see every fall in New England.

Fall colors in the back yard where I grew up

In California, many people plant exotic species to try to pick up some of that fall feel.

The Chinese Pistache tree in our front yard in Fresno, California

But this whole fall color thing is really amazing.  If I recall some of my biology properly, the colors we see in the fall are present all year round, but are masked by the chlorophyll.  Then, before the tree starts shutting down for the winter, a lot of nutrients and stuff are shuttled out of the leaves and into the tree.

First the leaves change color.

Then the leaves fall off.

(Unlike my hair, most of which fell out before the rest started turning gray.)

As a result, we get to enjoy this awesome color display each year in climates that are conducive to it.

In Thailand, we don’t get in on this phenomena.  (But we also don’t get the cold weather, either, so I guess that’s a bit of a tradeoff for us.)

I don’t suppose God had to make things as pretty as this, but He did, and I’m glad for it.

I think people can often be like these trees.  Sometimes, when we first meet people, we don't see what they are really like.  We may never see it.  Often we are wearing masks, so people won't see the real us.  We may do this intentionally or unintentionally. Sometimes our low self-esteem makes us think people won't like us if they really knew us.  Or there might be some secret that we try to hide--some event from our past (or present) that if people knew about, would really change how they felt about us.   Sometimes, we may have some character flaws that we try to keep under control (which can be a good thing, if they are damaging traits).

Often, it is during times of stress, when our true colors come out.  Good character qualities may come out when we have to rise to an occasion. Our more negative traits may show when we lose control.

Why are we so afraid to be ourselves, to show our true colors?  Do we have a lot of skeletons in our closet?  It seems like wearing a mask is often the norm in society.

One of the more interesting compliments Jesus makes about someone is in John 1:47, when Jesus approaches Nathanael for the first time.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." (NIV)
 
The New Living Translation puts it: he was a man of complete integrity.  This is the only one of his disciples about whom  Jesus makes this statement.  Was he the only one who wasn't afraid to be himself?  Was it because he was the only one of the twelve who had nothing to hide?

We don't get to see the pretty colors of the trees but once a year, and that just before they fall off.

 But we can be people of integrity all year round.  How good it would be if we didn't hide parts of ourselves because we had nothing to hide.

Paul writes of a day when this will happen.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)

In heaven, there will be no more masks--no more hiding.  It will be like switching from the monotone green of summer to the brilliant blend of colors of fall.  And all of our beauty, which may have been hidden by our sin all of our lives, will shine for all to see.

Weapon or Toy

A flambouyant tree similar to the one
we saw in Haiti

It was about 32 years ago when I first saw it. We had recently moved to Saint Marc, Haiti, and we were visiting Amani-y Beach just south of the city.  As we were driving over the white limestone soil on the way to the beach we passed this bare skeleton of a tree—except that it was covered with magnificent red blooms.
 
The flambouyant tree is probably the first tropical tree/flower that I learned the name of. And as beautiful as the blooms were, the later transformation was just as amazing. The big red blossoms gave way to enormous bean pods filled with hard, elongated beans. The pods dried almost black in color and when dry, the pods could be used as musical shakers. The dark skin could also be etched away revealing the paler woody pod beneath in order to make handicrafts.

Bloom of the flambouyant tree

The seeds themselves are quite hard. In the past, when I wanted to plant some seeds, I would file a notch in the side of the seed and then pour boiling water over them to hasten germination.

Pod and seeds of flambouyant tree
If you know how big my feet are, you can really appreciate this

 
It was in search of such pods that I set out a few weeks ago. I needed to pick them off the tree before they finished drying completely because otherwise they would split open while still on the tree. I had noticed a relatively short tree not far from our apartment on one of my walks so I headed to that tree.


When I arrived to the tree, there were the usual dozen or so feral dogs hanging around. (The undeveloped areas around here are home to probably a couple hundred feral dogs which are fed by well meaning folk trying to earn merit.) I had been around long enough where the dogs were more afraid of me than I of them. But that day they were even more afraid because now, in addition to the usual weapon I use to chase them away (my eyes), I also had this large, stick-like seed pod in my hand.

As I continued on my walk that morning, I turned around a corner when I saw this petite woman sitting on a curb almost dwarfed by the two golden retrievers that were with her. I had not seen those two dogs before, nor they me, but upon seeing me, the two came running up to me. One of them saw the bean pod in my hand—the same one that had been a potential weapon in the eyes of the feral dogs—and tried to pull it out of my hand to play fetch. (I had gone to great effort to get this pod, however, and I was not about to let it go.) The lady was apologetic about her dogs, but I was more than happy to hang out with the friendly duo for a few minutes. One of them wanted to follow me home, and I was tempted to let him.

We will soon (hopefully) be moving to the community of Ban Phruksa in Chachoengsao Province. This move to me is kind of like the seed pod of the flambouyant tree—I can look at it two different ways. The feral dog part of me wants to move to Isaan right now and resents the interim move we will soon be making to Ban Phruksa. The golden retriever in me sees how well suited we are for the ministry opportunity in Ban Phruksa. So I have to constantly choose between the two—will I be a feral dog or a golden retriever?

It’s kind of like when Moses sent out 12 spies into the Promised Land.  All twelve saw the same things, but ten of them, even though they had seen all the good things that the land had to offer, did not think that Israel was able to conquer the land or that it was worth the effort.  Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, thought that Israel was able to conquer the land.  Caleb reported: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." Numbers 13:30 (ESV) They believed that it was possible not because the nation of Israel was capable, but because God had promised them the land and that God would assure victory.

God, help me to see things with your eyes and to trust you to give victory.

Life in the bubble

Recently we had the opportunity to visit the island of Phuket in southern Thailand for a retreat/conference with fellow MB Missionaries that are working here in Thailand.  As is my usual habit when I am traveling, I like to get up on the early side and enjoy the sights before the crowds of people arrive.  On one morning everything had a more sparkling look because of the drops left behind from the evening rains.  As I peered through a drop on the end of a branchlet/needle of a Casuarina tree I was able to see the path in front of me—but it was upside down.

Imagine if you had to live in the drop.  In one sense you would think you had a clear understanding of the world around you, everything would be sharp and in focus and there would be an order to everything that you could make sense of—except it was upside down!  We would not have a true perspective because we our perspective would be from the limited world of life within the bubble.

That is kind of like what life is like for us humans.  We see the world around us and there is an apparent order to everything and everything seems to make sense.  But we don’t see everything.  Our perspective is limited by our humanity.  God’s perspective is is much bigger than ours.  And our perspective is often upside-down.  Here are just a few examples from the words of Jesus about how God’s perspective is often opposite from our perspective:

• For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:25-NIV)
•  Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."  (Mark 9:35-NIV)
•  When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."  (Luke 18:22-NIV)
• Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. (Matthew 5:11-NIV)

One day some of the limitations of our perspective will be removed.  The Apostle Paul writes of that day: Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12-NIV)  But even before that day comes, the Holt Spirit can help us to see things as God does.  Jesus said,  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26-NIV)  The Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to remember Jesus’ word that they might record them for us who would follow after them.

God, I thank you that you have chosen to reveal yourself to us through the prophets, through the scriptures, through Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit.  I thank you that you did not want us to live our lives with the distorted view of life from the inside the bubble.  But I confess that there is a lot of pressure to conform and I often give in and choose to life my life as though there is no more to the universe than what can be seen with our eyes or comprehended by our brains.  By Your Holy Spirit help me to see things as you do and respond to things as you would.