I’m a fan of similes. I’m a visual person and I like being able to apply familiar images or actions with things harder to explain in the abstract.
So when I was trying to think of what I wanted my relationship with God to look like this new year, on this new trip, I tried thinking of things of which I could compare it.
My first thought was of an onion. I think most of us are familiar with the line in “Shrek,” where Shrek is trying to explain to Donkey why ogres are like onions. “Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers…” In my head, I think of peeling back each layer of an onion. Could that be like my relationship with God?
But what happens when I peel back the last layer? There’s no more?
I would like to think of my give-and-take relationship with God as more evolutionary than that. It is a long term process that is going to look radically different from where it began. Yes, it has layers, and things I learn grow and build on other things I’ve learned. Struggles that I’ve experienced propel me into new adventures with a deeper understanding of the world around me.
Another picture entered my mind. Rings.
by aux.tv
A recent “Doctor Who” episode briefly touched on tree rings and it got me thinking about my own life. I want my life with God to look something like tree rings. The cross-section of a tree is unique to each tree. Scientists can see the climate the tree has lived in, if there were bad years or good years.
The rings also show each year the tree has been growing. If you look at the picture above, there are a few rings that look a lot wider than the thin rings around the edges. There was so much growth in the early years!
I think that is true for my walk with Christ as well. There was so much growth — but I was still thin and weak. Some rings are also darker than others. Some years were harder, but those years, those rings made the next ones possible.
I don’t know what my tree rings look like, but I decided I want this year to look like a brand new ring.
