Lessons from a fig tree

Welcome to my world, the world of delighting in finding very unlikely connections between anything and everything that I can. Many of these connections make sense only in my mind, and make other people look at me a little bit funny if I happen to mention them, but I think, or hope at least, that this one will prove an exception to that general rule.

In my Economic Botany class last week, we watched a movie (I love college classes! We get to watch movies!) about the Sycomore Fig tree and the community it in large part creates. This fig tree in Africa is known as the Queen of Trees, with good reason. In many, many ways it supports and creates an entire community that is dependent on it. There are hundreds of species of animals dependent on the fig tree for food, from monkeys to birds to insects and a host of others besides. They consume the fruit and the leaves and the sap, and even each other. The tree is a hunting ground for some, the nesting site for others, and shade and shelter for yet others. Without these fig trees, an entire complex web of many creatures would completely disintegrate.

But. But if you look even closer at the Queen of trees, you will see one more kind of insect. You will have to look closely, because these Fig Wasps are minuscule. But. But they are vital. These tiny, ephemeral wasps are responsible for the pollination of the flowers of the fig tree, the flowers that grow inside the young figs. The flowers are almost impossible to access. The fig wasps are the only pollinators capable of doing so. Yes, there is an entire community dependent on the fig tree--but. But the huge fig tree, living for many years and supporting so many others is completely dependent on a tiny wasp that lives mere hours. Without the wasps to pollinate the fig flowers and ensure a continuing population of fig trees, the entire system would eventually collapse. It all hinges on one small insect.

I mentioned unlikely connections when I began. There is of course the unlikely connection between the fig wasps and the hundreds of others requiring the fig tree for survival, but I also saw another connection, a Biblical one. Bear with me, this really does make sense.

"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." --1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Wow. God chooses the weak, the foolish, the despised, the base things of this world to put to shame the mighty and wise things. What could be weaker than the fig wasp? Or stronger than the fig tree? Yet, though it may seem foolish, the weak little wasp puts to shame the strong tree that would eventually cease to exist without the wasp. Wow. Truly, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.

My thoughts, His thoughts

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Such an easy passage to quote, but such a hard one to put faith behind. If God's ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts higher than my thoughts, then His plans for me have to be better than my plans for me. Yet it's so, so hard for me to accept this. It's so hard for me to let go of what I'm holding onto and trust that God will fill my hands with something better in His timing. My thoughts, my human mindset, my limited view of things want God to show me what He has before I can trust Him that He has something better. But His mindset is different. He wants me to trust Him that He does have something better whether I see it or not. I want God to show me, and then I'll trust Him, He wants me to trust Him and then He'll show me.

That's where I am right now, caught between my mindset and God's, the thoughts of heaven and the thoughts of earth. It's so unnatural to try to wrap my human mind around the infinite thoughts of God. I can try, but I can never manage to see or comprehend what He's doing. I always want to understand, but sometimes all I'm supposed to do is trust. And honestly, I'm not very good at that. It's a struggle these days...to just accept that God's thoughts and ways are higher and leave it at that. That seems like a bad place to abruptly end a post, but like me right now on this very subject, it's not finished off or tied up neatly...