Life in the Way

The Moss On My Tree.

I was sitting on my porch the other day and I noticed some moss on my tree. This tree, a large older tree in the north side of my property has this green streak. What is its purpose? Where did it come from? In the eternity of things, it would come and go regardless of me noticing. Even more, it would come and go regardless of my existence at all! Two things struck me. First, the moss is almost invisible, unnoticeable and I could have gone through my life never even knowing it was there (like people in cars passing on a highway) - not noticing its greenness and or its purpose. Second, a moment in time, noticing and connecting with creation can be so powerful - even balanced against eternity. I am still contemplating on the second, but the first spoke to me.

Have you ever felt alone? unknown? invisible? like no one cares about you? even worse, your just unnoticeable? Conversely, there have been many instances in my life when I felt like I wanted to disappear, but looking back on those instances, often it was because I feared being known. The ridicule, mocking, unacceptance who I was in all of my awkwardness. Would I have to try to change in order to fit in; changing who I was to someday hopefully be accepted for who I am (all the while trying to hold on to the real me).

Life is like that at times, a social club in which the requirement of acceptance is molding your behaviors and personality to the least common denominator in order to gain acceptance and hopefully gain enough influence to create an openness so that you could be known for who you really are. Politics can be a lot like that - Republican or Democrat - you need to fit in and play the game or you’ll end up on the outside - unsupported, regardless of your qualifications for public office. I don’t know why we Americans are that way, but we are.

Politics aside, it is possible to go through life like the moss on my tree - almost unnoticed and hidden, yet functional. When Matthew 16 recounts Peter claiming Jesus to be the Christ, he realized that Jesus made life different.

It was more than the daily grind.
It was more than the passing, “how ya doing?”
It was more than conversations focussed on things to do.
It was more than money or possessions.

Maybe it was like going from standard definition television to HD. Words cannot easily describe the difference that Christ can make in a person’s life, but in the way it is like realizing that the green hue on my tree was more than a color or a mistake - it is with purpose, important to the creation, and even more so - known!