Palm Trees
I’m a northerner; palm trees are alien to me. I’ve never loved them like I once loved the Dutch Elms of my early childhood, the maples of my middle years and the oaks and hickories around me today. Painting these came as a whimsical break from more familiar trees. But then the Holy Spirit unexpectedly began to chide me about a complacency in my ignorance of palms. In a flash of His laser light, I was set back; I saw that I’d lost the eagerness and openness that once made exploring all of God’s creation and all of His Word inviting and exciting .
I knee-jerked into defensiveness and rationalized to myself that my narrowed focus was sensible and efficient. After all, no one can know everything about everything. But you know the Holy Spirit. His light shone true through my bad attitude. It wasn’t about mental limitations or the vastness of knowledge. It wasn’t about disinterest in palms or my hardwired predilection to process information rather than accumulate or store it. It was about the dimming of a once eager childlike interest in both the Word of God and world around me. My arguments fell defenseless when the Holy Spirit flashed His light on the reality of Jesus’ teaching. I could almost see Him admonishing His disciples, telling them that only the childlike and teachable can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Convicted and humbled, I felt the old eagerness rise up once more inside. I wanted to know more about palms trees.
Scriptures began to rise in my mind. The Holy Spirit reminded me that Solomon compared his bride’s stature to a palm tree, that both Solomon and Ezekiel’s temples were adorned with palm trees, and that the Psalmist wrote,
The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree. Psalm 92:12
Pricked in conscience and heart, I began to read about palms on the internet! Here’s a thumbnail of where I started and what I learned.
To start with, I’d seen palm trees as icons for tropical vacations. I’d known that a jubilant crowd threw palm fronds before Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem before His crucifixion. As cook, I’d liked and used coconuts, coconut oil and dates.
I didn’t know that palm trees are amazing. More than 2,500 different varieties have descended from one common ancestor who existed at least 80 million years ago. Talk about hardiness. Nor did I know about their usefulness. Palm trees provide shade and give foods like nuts and fruit, beverages—both alcoholic and fresh. Palms provide vinegars, syrups, sugars, oils, and medicines. The trees give wax, varnishes and dyes, wood for construction and utensils, fibers like cane and raffia for basketry, rope, thatch for roofs and mattress materials. Talk about usefulness.
I didn’t realize that palm trees survive in totally diverse habitats. All need water, but while some varieties live in moist jungle lands, others have adapted to desert oases, to flood plains, and grasslands. Some survive in toxic soils. Talk about flexibility.
I did know that palm trees are beautiful, but didn’t know that to ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean civilizations the palm tree symbolized fertility, peace, victory, longevity, good health and eternal life. Suddenly this passage from Revelation became more meaningful.
. . . a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”
The next part shook me because I realized that perhaps you or me or our descendants may eventually hold palm branches in our hands. We may be part of that great multitude before the throne of God— praising Him for His peace, His victory, and our eternal life in Him. Read what John reports seeing next:
Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed inwhite robes, and where did they come from?”
And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7: 9- 17
By the end, my whim to paint palm trees felt like a God-idea. These palms became more and more beautiful in my eyes. My complacency was washed away. Once again I felt alive to the the truth that every detail in the Bible is there for a reason—if only we seek the Holy Spirit for revelation and take the time and effort to search it out.
