The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1950. THE BLOSSOMING TREE

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 September 1950, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1950. THE BLOSSOMING TREE

igPRING having made itself felt the fruit tyees are hesitating, they arg not as yet quite .decided whether to take a ciranee on the weather. They seem to hide their wisdom in silence, but anyone sensitive to trees feels that they have their own secrets. They have witnessed years pass in certain procession, they have felt the kindly warmth of pie breath of spring and then felt the keen edge of retreating winter’s resentment at defeat. Whatever the trees do they do unhurriedly; yet they are capable of reading aright the signs, for they can move forward to meet the new season unafraid of temporarily overcast skies. Before the leaves make their appearance on the fruit trees the delicate buds burst their envelopes and engage in Nature’s tremendous artistry. Springtime is so full of promise that no matter how history may be written it brings hope to the human heart. In the older lands there was some natural appointment for the greathuman festival of hope which 'now is Easter. There is no incongruity that in Europe Palm Sunday should be celebrated by the. use pf willow buds or catkins for decoration, lij Australia there has grown up a sufficiently strong sentiment in favour of celebrating the carnival qf Spring and so Wattle Day has been introduced on the other side of the Tasman to mark the departure of winter.

It may be asked why it is that Nature paints all things gay in the Merry Month of May or its equivalent in the Southern Hemisphere. It is not without purpose that eqch tree and each spring flower is loaded with arresting colour. The crocus thrusting its head above the snow-covered ground to meet the winter sunshine, the snowdrops taking their shy turn, and the garnish daffodils thqt spangle the green carpet all cry out that spring is on its way. When the trees carry their high colours, however, spring is truly here and the heart of man should again he glad.

The ancients did not feel that they Jived near to nature. They knew themselves to be part of it. They did not look upon the seasons as some great possession that was outside of themselves, they regarded it with a veneration that was inward. It is easy to prqclaim that modern man has lost this sense of being part of nature but has he? In the high reasons of spring and autumn that emotion which is sometimes described as a poetic feeling is no more than a realisation of and a reaction to that knowledge that he is part of and at one with the wholg universe. Man does not presume to stand outside the scheme of things, but he comes to be aware that he is different from the other component parts. He js not fixed to the soil like a plant and he is not dependent upon Nature’s gifts clone. He has the capacity to take hold of the resources of Nature to guide and direct them within given limits. He can plant the seed of his .own choosing and tend the plant when it is progressing to its appointed burgeoning. He pan ensure that his chosen harvest shall have no eo)npetil|on from other plants aqd consequently he can rightly be termed a producer. “Inherit the earth and subdpe it’’ was ap ancient ordinance reaching back to the dim distance of the history of the hupiap race. But the hand of man could work only within give'll limits. He had the right and the power of choice, but this choice came to him relatively bite in his" history. Until he had bepn made aware of the rotation of the seasons and what they signified to him he could not inherit the earth, much legs' could 1» subdue it. Each year, then, Nature flew her fla°s on the spring -winds apd called his attention to the renewing" that was in thp womb of time. And the heart of man was young again fqr he knew that life wqnld not depart from the earth. He knew that “while the earth ye;nainpth springtime and harvest, and summer and winter apd cold and heat and day and night shall not cease.” The world was ppt governed by capricious spirits but by a Itioh Poorer yho ruled by Law qnd tins ruler it was who beckoned man to the new cycle of life with high artistry . The Blossoming Tree may be called the Banner of God, for it foretells His handiwork and beckons man tq go forth into the great adventure of the renewing of life. Small wonder then that man seeing these things, came to believe that God is flood, to trpst Him’and to work according to hupian knowledge of God’s laws.