Climbing Trees

John Muir_ he was the founder of the Sierra Club. The love of nature was his central passion, he spent his life studying, protecting, and appreciating it. In December of 1874, he was staying with a friend in the Sierra Mountains when a winter storm set in. The wind was so strong that it bent the trees backwards, instead of hiding in the cabin, Muir chased the storm. He found a mountain ridge, climbed to the top of a giant Douglas Fir and held on for dear life for several hours, riding his passions and senses on the sights and sounds and scents of the winter storm raging around him. 

 "When the storm began to sound I lost no time in pushing out into the woods to enjoy it. For on such occasions, Nature always has something rare to show us, and the danger to life and limb is hardly greater than one would experience crouching deprecatingly beneath a roof".

Muir was no stranger to danger. He climbed mountains and crossed rivers and explored glaciers. There is something about the mantal picture of John Muir climbing a 100ft Douglas Fir and riding out a raging storm that is iconic.

Now put that iconic picture in your mind as you think about the Christian life. Are we to be mere spectators to life? Or are we to confront life head on, can we climb those trees and embrace the life the Creator has put before us?

We were born to be tree climbers! Can you think of anyone in the Bible that climbed a tree? Zacchaeus climbed a tree. A sycamore tree. He was a tax collector. I imagine he had a reputation in town. Yet he climbed a tree, because he wanted to see Jesus. Some may say he looked foolish, I probably would have thought the same if I had been alive back then to see it. And then Jesus told him to come down, because He was going to go to his house. So Zaccheus climbed a tree and Jesus went to a sinners home. And people complained. lol 

We could always find our Blue Eyes up in a tree when she was a little girl, sometimes a lot higher up then we were comfortable with! How many adults do you know that still climb trees? Our Blue Eyes still can't help herself when she comes across a good climbing tree, and I hope she raises her 2 little ones to be tree climbers too.

Zacchaeus was willing to look foolish for just a glimpse of Jesus walking by on the street below. And the result was salvation! I can just see Zacchaeus walking that street later on in his life , going to that tree and reliving that moment again and again in his memory. I wonder if he ever climbed back up there? I bet he showed his children and grandchildren, and told them the story of when he met Jesus, up in a tree. 

Am I a tree climber? Have I ever climbed a tree to meet my Jesus? Have I ever been willing to look oh so foolish for Him? 

We are called to be tree climbers, giant killers, water walkers, and ark builders for our Jesus. Am I willing to be any of those for my Jesus?