Who Tends the Forest

We have experienced a couple of storms here in Santa Cruz County the past month and it’s been wild.

With the wind storm here in the Redwoods we have seen trees fallen on cars, roofs caved in, streets blocked, power lines down, and hundreds of branches scattered along the streets. A week later, the anticipated 8-inch massive rain/wind storm did not cause as much damage here as expected, but rather the majority of the damage happened a few counties south.

When we consider these circumstances, we can see a variety of things at play. We see destruction or damage for some, inconvenience or compromised-safety for others, and even safety or protection for many.

• So, how do we make sense of these events of the storms?

• Or even in our personal lives when there is hardship/pain/death at times, and protection/healing/life at other times?

Consider the way our circumstances inform our theology (who you believe God to be and how He is actvie in His world), or the way our theology informs our circumstances. Is our picture of God and His character shaped more by what we’ve faced or what He has said?

Our circumstances can:

• Affirm our theology

• Form our theology

• Challenge our theology

And depending on what side of the circumstance we are facing (not protected/protected), we can make a variety of conclusions.

Tough circumstances can illuminate aspects of God’s character we may not have previously appreciated. While at the same time, protection and provision can give us false-confidence.

If we allow all the situations where we’re protected to define and inform our theology, then when we do face hardship, we’re unprepared to know how to deal with it. How we process these unsettling circumstances can deeply impact our relationship with God.

If we believe God protects, then those located in the area that were protected by the storm thank God for His protection, affirming their theology that God is a God who protects. And on the other hand, when we believe God protects, but a tree falls on our house or we face hardship after hardship, our theology can become affected by our circumstances, and shape our perspective of God.

How have your past circusmtances of protection or “storms” affected your theology of God?

In grad school my professor would say that wisdom literature (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Song of Solomon) helps to answer our “why” questions about life with the God “who” we are in relationship with. Let’s tease this out a bit more.

A poem I read recently, Who Tends the Forest, reveals the shift of “who” is behind what is going on, rather than “why” things happen the way they do. We can spend so much time wrestling with “why” the forest is tended the way it is , or “why” our circumstances turned out a certain way, or even “why” God didn’t protect.

And yet we see similarly in the book of Job, that God answered all Job’s “why” questions with “who” He is as God, the Sustaniner and Creator of the world. This humbled and satisfied Job. It put his suffering in context of a greater relationship.

God often provides the answer of “who” He is, and less often the “because.”

And there can be a comfort in how God responds to our questions. 

Why-questions that demand an explanation often stand independent of God. But as we bring our why-questions to God, we can see our hearts and our questions begin to shift. 

Then, God answers with all of who He is.

And, what we often need most isn’t the why-answer, but the who-answer. A who-answer from God means God is here, He is with me, He is powerful, He is in control. His who-answers address my heart’s deepest need. And who-answers keep me near the God who is God in the midst of my circumstances. 

When we wonder with God and allow Him to affirm, form, and challenge our ideas of Him, He then answers us with who He is and brings us into authentic relationship. 

Take a moment and read through the poem Who Tends the Forest, and begin to reconnect with our God who tends the forest, the storms, and you, too.