I am incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed a few weeks of holidaying in the UK before returning home after an intensive Salvation Army leadership course. The morning of what was Mother’s Day in Australia found me waking up quite early to the first of 4 mornings in the beautiful town of York.

Despite the picturesque setting, I found myself feeling particularly sad as it was the first Mother’s Day without my mum who had been promoted to glory (as we say in The Salvation Army) only 10 weeks earlier. I felt God speaking to me in my sorrow, suggesting I head out for a walk along the river our accomodation was on the banks of.

The wrestle I found was in deliberately slowing down my pace. I kept slipping into a mindset of pushing myself physically instead of taking the time to be present and observant of my surroundings. I worked out that instead of being focussed on achieving a goal of pace or distance I needed to settle into just wandering along the path and noticing the surroundings.

It was a foggy morning, in an unfamiliar location to me so there were many beautiful sights that took my focus – dogs, flowers, boats, houses, people. And then I saw it. Alongside the walking path was an amazing tree. The trunk seemed larger than the others around it and more interesting in it’s detail, the leaf canopy was significantly more extensive reaching across to cover the whole path. I paused my walk to take photos of this magnificent example of arbor and ponder if this is what God wanted me to see.

The trunk was sturdy with a number of larger boughs extending from the central, thick base. It’s surface was pitted and marked and had a variety of nooks and cranny’s for creatures to hide in, and while I was gazing at it a tiny robin flew into one such ‘built for safety’ crevices.

The greenery was vibrant and lush with some of the leaves being larger than my whole hand! Being towards the end of spring the canopy was quite full and dense, offering a large degree of shade and protection. The effect was one of a type of coziness and nurture.

It was only after I walked away from that tree and looked back that I could see the amazing flowers in it’s branches, pointing to the sky. They were white and pink with touches of yellow and the blossom was arranged in a teardrop shape. They were quite captivating and beautiful. Being someone who loves colour I found it unusual that I hadn’t noticed the flowers first, but the other aspects of the tree.

There was something about that particular tree, despite being part of a mass planting along the river bank of the exact same species, that had grabbed my attention so as I continued to walk I asked God to help me understand the significance. He whispered to me these particular truths:

Mother’s are intended to be ‘safe places’ for us to identify as we navigate our lives. We can pick them out from a multitude of similar-looking others. They can offer protection and safety when we are feeling small and insignificant. They can shade us from some of the harsh realities of life. Their influence can often only be identified after we walk away and look back. Their reach can extend way beyond their point of grounding.

In the very first Psalm we find reference to a godly, upright person being compared to a tree. Verse 3 of Psalm 1 states, “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”

Don’t get me wrong, I am not romanticising my mum and believing her to have been only goodness and light. I do hold a realistic view of her humanity, but on this significant day I found it helpful to compare my mum and her Godly influence on me to this amazing tree I found on my walk. Instead of being sad about this I was able to be thankful for my mum’s life, as well as be challenged to ensure that I am up to the task to fill the gap left by her passing.

I am grateful to God for leading me to make this discovery and to be challenged about what kind of tree influence I might be for my own children, and for others around me. What kind of tree are you?

Be blessed.