God Bless This Clearing

God created the most beautiful wildflower He had yet made.  He planted the seed of the flower in the middle of a clearing in a forest and asked the trees and grasses to shelter the seed.  So the trees shed their leaves and needles, and shook bits of bark and twigs over the clearing.  The grasses grew up around the seed and hovered over the plant as it began to grow.

One day a man, walking through the forest, came upon the glen.  His eyes lit up as he viewed the small opening in the canopy.  “I know what I need to do.” he thought to himself, and he turned and headed back the way he had come.

A short time later the man returned with a rake, a small trowel and bags for compost.  He labored all afternoon and filled three of the compost bags with leaves, pine needles, small twigs and stems of glass that pulled free as he raked.  He surveyed the work he had done with a smile.  Then he took the small trowel and dug up the weed growing in the center of the clearing.

The man paused as he reached the edge of the clearing, on his way home with his tools and the bags of compost.  He said in a loud voice, “GOD BLESS THIS CLEARING” and he went home satisfied with the work he had done.

* * * * *

The trees of the forest and the grasses moaned and cried aloud over the destruction the man had done.  Not only had he removed their protective covering from the glade, but he had dug up the plant God had placed there.  The spot was now barren and desolate.

God heard the forest’s lament and He came and walked among the trees and comforted them.  “Will you punish the man for destroying what you had planted?” the trees asked and the grasses murmured.  “No,” said God, “the man has brought his own punishment on himself.  Watch and you will see.”

Over the next several months thistle seeds blew into the clearing and planted themselves, grew and flourished.  Wild Garlic Mustard crept in and filled the spaces between the thistles and the trees.  And Buckthorn rooted itself in the soil and grew.

Sometime later the man again walked the paths of the forest and when he came to the clearing he was appalled.  “Who has ruined the work I did to clear this space?’  With anger he retraced his steps and then returned with a shovel and a garden rake.  He labored all day digging up the thistles, the garlic and the buckthorns.  He dug deep, severing the roots of the garlic and the roots of the trees along the edges of the clearing. 

The man piled the debris at the edge of the clearing saying to himself, “this is organic material.  It will compost and then enrich the soil.”

Then the man shouldered his shovel and rake and as he reached the edge of the again cleared space, he said in a loud, and slightly angry, voice, “GOD BLESS THIS CLEARING!”  

* * * *

The pile of thistles, garlic mustard and buckthorn rested quietly at the end of the clearing, heating up as composition began.  The thistle blossoms matured, closed and began to make seeds, then opened to the fluffy white tufts that have delighted children over the ages.  Soon the seeds were mature and every breeze wafted the downy parachutes over the clearing and over the tops of the trees.  Some seeds settled onto the soil of the clearing and others found new homes beyond the trees.

The severed garlic roots each produced a new plant until the clearing was more populated with plants than it had been before.  At the same time, the severed roots of the trees could no longer transport nutrients to the branches and leaves of the trees ringing the clearing and the trees began to yellow and die.

The man once again walked the paths of the forest until he came to the clearing.  He stood at the edge of the once verdant glen and looked with despair on the rank weeds and the ring of dying trees.  “What has happened?  How can this be?”  He cried aloud.  The trees and the grasses murmured, but the man did not have his ears open to hear their words.

The man sank to his knees and with great anguish, cried out, “Oh God, what can we do about this travesty?”  He rose and stumbled his way back out of the forest.

* * * *

The trees at the edges of the clearing continued to die, alarming the adjacent trees.  The grasses did their best to recover the glade, but the weeds were too strong and they were only able to retain their foothold in a few places.

Summer came with its blazing sun and long days without rain.  Soon the trees at the edge of the one-time glen were nearly completely dead.  The thistles turned brown under the glare of the sun and even the garlic wilted.  Only the trees deeper in the forest survived as their roots went deep into the soil where there was plenty of moisture.  These trees sheltered the grasses and other plants growing at their feet so that, while they drooped from the heat, they continued to survive.

In August great rolling banks of black clouds appeared on the horizon and powerful streaks of lightening flashed out of the clouds.  Shortly the bank of clouds was over the forest and a powerful bolt of lighting struck the largest of the pines that now stood dead at the edge of the clearing.  As the lightening seared its way down the trunk, the pine burst into flames, its resin exploded in bullets of fire setting the dry vegetation in the clearing on fire as well.  Soon the entire opening in the forest was ablaze.

The man happened to step out of his home to watch the bank of clouds with the huge bolts of lightening rolling toward him.  He saw a column of smoke rising from the middle of the forest.  Alarmed, he rushed inside to alert the authorities that the forest was on fire.

While the fire crews gathered the equipment for fighting a fire in the midst of the forest, the black clouds began to release their load of rain.  Even as the fire crews made their way down the fire lane into the midst of the forest, the fire in the glen was dying.  Only the trunks of the once majestic ring of trees still smoldered, but as they burned through, the remnants of the trunks and branches fell into the clearing and burned themselves out in the ash of the other plants.

When the great storm passed, as the sun shown on the forest the next morning, the trees of the forest gazed on the once beautiful glen.  It was now a sodden mass of wet ash and fallen limbs.  The trees and the grasses within the forest sighed and waited for the God of all creation to continue to do the work He had begun.

* * * *

It was some time later that the man returned to the forest.  He wanted to see what destruction the fire has caused. 

The man walked to the edge of the clearing.  A blanket of ash still covered the entire area.  Even the fallen tree limbs and trunks were buried under the ash. 

A great moan escaped the man and he wondered if his beautiful forest could ever recover.  He felt helpless to make any meaningful effort in the face of such devastation.

While the man stood helpless at the edge of the clearing, another man made his way down the path, from the opposite edge of the forest.  This man also stepped to the edge of the trees and surveyed the gray, still sodden blanket of ash.  “It looks hopeless, doesn’t it.” said the second man.

The first man turned and looked through bleary eyes at this older gentleman and could only nod. 

“But it really isn’t hopeless, you know.”

“What do you mean?” asked the younger man.  “I don’t even understand how all this could have happened.” And he hung his head in despair.

“Ah, that is easy.  I have been observing all that has gone on for these past several years.  Someone, probably thinking they were doing a good thing, removed all the protective covering in this clearing several years ago.  Even more tragic, they dug up the one plant that was of greatest value in entire the forest.  I suppose they thought it was a weed.”

The younger man looked sharply at the older man.  Then he turned and looked back at the ruined clearing with horror on his face. 

* * * *

The older man continued, “Clearing the opening in the forest allowed thistles and wild garlic and buckthorns to establish themselves.  Then, again I suppose the man thought he was doing the right thing, someone came in and cleared away the invading plants, digging up many of the roots as well.  What he apparently did not know, every time he severed a garlic plant, it produced two or more new plants from the roots still in the soil.  And he dug too close to the trees, cutting their roots which supply the trees with nutrients.  And he left the thistles in a great pile where they could heat up and still produce many seeds.  He, no doubt, thought he was helping restore the glen, but he actually made it much worse.”

“And now this fire.  I suppose it will never recover.”  The younger man’s voice was hoarse with emotion.

“Oh, quite the opposite.”  The older man smiled and gently laid his hand on the arm of the younger man.  “The fire is the best thing that could have happened to this little glen.  It is actually restorative.  Look!”  and he picked up a broken branch that lay next to him.  He gently pushed the ash aside and the younger man could see tiny spikes of green already pushing their way through the blackened crust of earth.

“See, the fire has killed the thistle and the garlic, but the grasses, that have been here all along, have very deep roots and they have survived the heat and flame of the fire.  By next spring, this clearing will again be covered with waving grasses. 

“And see here,” he pointed with the stick at a burned fir cone, “the fire has released the seeds that were tucked tightly within this cone.  Some of them will also take root in the nutrient enriched soil, for the ash is filled with nutrients that will nourish them.  Even as the grasses take back the clearing tiny evergreens, and shortly after them deciduous trees, will repopulate the edges of this clearing and it will become a glen once again.

“I hope someday the man who brought about such ruin to this clearing will see how it has healed itself.  When God created this place, He also created a way for it to be healed.”

The younger man sobbed aloud.  He could not speak as emotions that he did not fully understand.  Finally he whispered, “I am that man.  I asked God to bless this clearing, but I actually brought about its ruin.”

* * * *

Once again the older man placed his hand on the arm of the younger man. 

“No, you did not bring about its ruin.  See, I have shown you that it will recover and be as it was before. 

“You merely made the mistake that so many humans make.  YOU decided what God needed you to do in this place when you began to remove the protective covering.  Too often humans decide what they should do for God, instead of asking God what He wants them to do.

“When God designed all of life, He made it with a balance.  Humans have to live in balance with all of nature - and with each other.  It is hard for humans to wait for God to show them what to do, how to live, how to treat each other, but it is the only way that balance can be preserved.”

The younger man sighed deeply, “I think I can see that now, I think I have learned a great lesson, or perhaps, am beginning to learn a great lesson.”

The older man smiled and gently squeezed the younger man’s arm, “Yes, I think you are too. 

“Ah, look” and he pointed to the center of the ash covered clearing, “the plant that you thought was just a weed is growing again.” 

The younger man peered intently at the place the older man indicated and he could just see the tiniest tip of green poking through the gray blanket of ash.  A look of joy suffused his face and he turned to grin at the older man, but the man was gone. 

The younger man turned back to gaze again at the clearing.  “May this clearing bless God and all who see it.” he whispered. Then he turned and went home filled with great peace and unexplainable joy.

amen