Tree Treasures

Joycita Receptacula

I walk by this tree on my way to and from work. Now, it has been very dry and hot as you may realise from looking at the tree and the ground around it. When it is hot, like now, I walk on any side of the tree but when it rains, there is a lot of grass around the tree and grass holds creepy crawlies so I walk only on the left side which is the proper pathway. Now that I have written that, it seems rather pointless but now you know. Anyway, this tree has been leafless for so long that I cannot remember how its leaves look like. It has been really, really hot. So hot that you can hardly get a decent night's sleep. If a night is cooler then the next day the tea time talk in the office will be about how well we slept. 

As I walk past the tree, it looks like it is really feeling the effect of the heat. I remarked to a colleague that the tree looks like it is raising its hands to God in a plea for rain. Can you see it? My colleague looked at the tree and told me that the tree actually holds a lot of water in its trunk. Enough water to tide it over to the rainy season. In a word, imejipanga. I looked at the tree in a different light. Really, I have looked at it in the light of the sunset, hot noon sun, moonlight, vehicle headlamps etc but I digress. This tree, is really a quiet champion! It is a spectacular receptacle of water! Hence its biological name, Joycita Receptacula. What? I can see your sceptical smile. Let me pause and say that if I learnt anything from history, it is that if you find something in nature, a place, a river, a mountain, a lake, a butterfly, a tree, you name it. It does not matter that the locals have a name for it and know that the trunk holds water. YOU NAME IT. And you put your name  somewhere in there because you want to make it easier for future students of history and biology to know who discovered it. Yes, because you are charitable. So the tree is the Joycita Receptacula. Just Joycita if you don't want to burden your tongue.

Joycita reminds me of the words of a friend who told me, and I paraphrase, "...when you are in a dry season in your spiritual life, draw from the past". If you have trouble believing, remember what God has done in the past. I'm also reminded of a sermon based on Matthew 6:19-21,  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I always thought that these verses only talked about the future. About what we'd finally get in heaven. This preacher, said we should store up His word in our hearts and minds. She went on to say, to my delight, that whenever we needed it, God would reach into our account in heaven where we had stored this treasure and give us what we need. Have you been in a situation and recalled a verse or sermon that helped you through it? That came from your Treasure Account!

The preceding verses talk of giving, praying and fasting.  Speaking of fasting, you may be familiar with that story in the Bible where Jesus' disciples were unable to cast out a demon from a boy. Jesus came and cast it out and later, they asked Him why they couldn't cast it out. He told them that they could only be cast out by prayer and fasting. I'd read that and wonder if the disciples were supposed to see the boy, pray and fast then go back and cast out the demons. My mom told me that it was the praying and fasting you'd already done that would count then. The light bulb that went on in my mind was well, as bright as those lights Esther Passaris put up in Mathare. 

Christ taught that the giving, praying and fasting is to be done in secret. When done in this manner, they result in a reward from God. This tree draws its water not through these branches we can see, but through its roots which we cannot see. After the rainy season, the dry season will come. So her roots work in the rainy season. The verses succeeding these, go on to urge us not to worry but rather to trust God. Read on here. Studying the Word, giving to those in need, praying and fasting. That is how we gather the water that keeps Joycita alive in the dry season. 

Maybe Joycita's limbs are up in worship to the Giver, not just supplication for the gift.