"That's the thing about natural disasters. It brings out the best in people and it brings out the worst in people"
I was pondering this on the bike home while trying not to breathe through my nose. Does it bring out the best and the worst in people? Or does it simply bring out the people?
The theory that people are either innately bad or innately good is one of major controversy and as a christian, I do believe everyone is capable of change. What must've happened to the young boy that grew up to become a man that gets arrested for looting? Abusive parents? Lack of education and proper role models? Got in with the wrong crowd?
Who is to blame, not for his own actions (they are just that, his own) but rather for the life leading up to that point that somehow made him think his actions were OK or necessary?
If there was a seed and it fell from the tree onto cold, hard ground and as a result grew up stunted and never bore much fruit, is that the fault of the tree? If that same seed was picked up by a human who planted it in rich soil with plenty of water and sunlight and the seed still grew up to be stunted with little fruit, is that the fault of the grower?
There is one thing missing from this metaphor. The tree is not human.
If the seed fell from the tree onto cold hard ground because the tree simply did not care where its offspring landed then that is the fault of the tree. If there was nothing but cold hard ground as far as the eye could see then circumstances out of the trees control would be to blame, but that doesn't mean the tree loved her offspring any less. However upon hitting the cold hard ground, the offspring may come to believe that the tree did not love it. It is only a seed and cannot see as far as the tree. Its only option is to see a huge tree above it that is thriving enough to produce fruit (and therefore seeds) and wonder why then did the tree drop it near its base where the ground is hard? OK this is doing my head in. Lets just change back to human and child.
I will use my own upbringing as an example because upon reading over that last paragraph I think I am living up to the old adage "you can tell more about the writer from his works than what he is actually writing about"
My fathers tree was a big fat over indulged woman that was thrown far away from her tree as a kid when she fell pregnant. Having to adopt out this seed started killing dads tree from the inside out until she was old and bitter and reluctant to ever let any of her seeds go again. As a result they were dropped on hard ground right at the base of their tree where all the nutrients and moisture had been taken by the tree. Being stubborn or perhaps just lucky, all four seeds found root but the roots were shallow. My dad and his sister grew up hating the tree for not letting them fall away from her where the ground was richer and she wasn't blocking the sunlight. The other two seeds listened to the tree when she told them of the bleakness of the world she had grown up in and they grew to fear doing anything without her permission. Being a mother she wanted the best for her children but she was smothering them. She forced living water down their throats until they grew big and fat but learned to hate the taste. My father managed to uproot himself and found himself planted by another tree that had grown up with many siblings and had only recently discovered the benefits of drinking living water. Now away from that horrid mother tree, dad decided never to drink living water again. He would prep his leaves just so, so that it appeared he was, but the water he was drinking was tainted with hatred for the tree that tried to manipulate him and he never grew much fruit. My mother, being a timid tree, tried to ask him about the water he was drinking but was told "you're exactly like my mother!" She ended up believing that changing herself was the answer so she stopped having an opinion. Then came the day that she found she was growing a seed. She was thrilled! But dad, fearing a childhood he had experienced, said he wasn't ready to be a father. He had no role model as his father tree had been absent a lot. Determined that his sapling would not have an upbringing like his, dad taught the sapling the hard realities of the world. That women manipulated and fathers never showed affection if they were there at all. The sapling was under explicit instructions that it must live the life her parents never got to live. Living water was OK in small doses but getting good grades came first. If rules weren't adhered to then a sound lashing was in order. The sapling learned to fear her father and despise her mother for not standing up to him. Then one day her mother took her and her siblings and left. The sapling now had broken roots and was in terrible pain so blamed her mother. The mother tree was taken aback when the scars on her saplings trunks did not start to heal as she had expected. She went into a great depression. It was now up to the learned older sapling to try and nurture her two siblings the only way she had been taught how. One sibling grew up despising her for smothering. The other grew up thinking that her sister was mean and fearing the world.
The end result was a woman who always thought the worst of men even though she longed to actually be close to one. She learned not to have an opinion in order to keep herself safe.Then she met a man who reintroduced her to living water. It began to heal the scars on her trunk and made her see clearer. She realised that not every guy was bad although beginning to trust them again was an ongoing journey. She started to have a little faith in herself. She married the tree of her dreams and is happy but still afraid of producing fruit.
There is something to be said for nature, like the short gene in my family and the high risk of diabetes but everything to do with our actions is defined by how we were nurtured. But let us not forget that living water. It has the ability to change any tree from the inside out. It is the only thing that can nurture us properly. It was specifically designed for us and we cannot function as fruit bearing trees without it.
Being like my parents and habouring bitterness may give us the appearance of trees ready to have fruit but untill you have living water in the equation the fruit will not grow properly. That, we cannot blame on nature. It is simply a nurture we did not acknowledge as our own fault.
Matthew 7:15-20
15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. 18 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.
Matthew 21:18-19
18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Fig trees grow fruit even before the leaves grow therefore there should have been figs on the tree. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Basically this was an illustration to his disciples not to do what my dad did and pretend to be a christian without producing fruit.