The Deacon’s View
The “Miracle Tree”


Recently Robin Denney ( whom St. Paul’s is helping to sponsor during her missionary year in Liberia as an agriculture teacher and helper) told me about the Moringa, or “miracle tree” that grows wild in eastern Africa.  For many years this has been seen as a “weed” tree, seemingly useless, except for its ability to withstand severe droughts.  Now agricultural experts have found that the Moringa contains vitamins A, B, C, and E, plus high quality protein.  It can also regulate insulin, purify water and kill parasites.  So far, forty different medicinal uses from the tree have been discovered, plus its seeds give good oil and the leaves can be eaten in salads.  From a seed about the size of a pea, a fifteen foot tree grows in the first year.  No wonder it is  being called the “miracle” tree.

What makes this so intriguing to me is the fact that because it is so common and growing wild, no one seemed to pay attention to the Moringa, and thus for many years no one recognized its potential to heal and save.  The “miracle tree” presents us with a contemporary parable...a parable as current for us as the parable of the sower and the seed was for those who gathered around Jesus.   The Moringa is our reminder of the way God continues to use the ordinary, the overlooked as vessels and means of divine grace.  The “weedy” Moringa reminds us of God’s hidden availability, right under our noses!

One of the challenges in East Africa, now that people are beginning to recognize the Moringa’s potential,  is to find ways to mass produce the tree’s beneficial products ...to move beyond mere knowledge.  The goal is to actually tap into the tress potential so that the people will begin to benefit from it.

Is this not our Christian challenge as well:  to actually tap into God’s potential?  We are called to move beyond just intellectually accepting that God is somehow present for us, and thinking that God probably can heal us, probably free us from our fears and anxieties.  Our challenge is to move beyond distant trust, into taking the active step of entrusting ourselves into the Love that will heal us and change us.

Jesus said: “Come unto me, all you who are heavy leaden, and I will give you rest.”  This is a promise, not just a possibility.

        In Christ’s love,
            Gay