"Dont Count Me Out!" by Rev. Barbara Merritt

[Memos from Rev. Barbara Merritt and Rev. Tom Schade]

M I N I S T E R ‘ S   M E M O

“Don’t Count Me Out!”

It was a small pine tree, sitting in a large pot on the gravel outside the
greenhouse at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden in England. At about
four feet tall, it looked like a left over, bedraggled Christmas tree. What
caught my eye was its light apple-green new growth at the ends of the
branches. My sister pointed out that a highly unusual double row of pine
needles grew on each frond.

But what made our eyes pop was the sign explaining this plant. It was a
“Wollemi Pine” thought to be extinct for two million years. Its discovery in
1994 occurred as David Noble, an officer of the Parks and Wildlife Service,
was hiking in the Blue Mountains a hundred miles west of Sydney, Australia.
Hiking through some of the more rugged and remote cliffs and canyons he
noticed, in a particularly isolated rain forest gorge, an unusual looking
stand of pine trees.

The taxonomic research revealed that the pine was a new genus and species.
Believed to be one of the dominant trees of the Jurassic Period, it thrived
in the southern hemisphere for roughly 200 million years. The oldest fossil
remains are in a 90 million year old rock. Everyone believed this plant had
been extinct for two million years. Then David Nobel found a grove of living
plants nearby the most populated city in Australia.

This find has been called the botanical equivalent of stumbling across a
living dinosaur. The tree has quite a lot to teach us about how living
things have changed over the millennia. For instance, it reproduces itself
with genetically identical progeny. (Sexual reproduction hadn’t been
invented back then?) Sometimes one plant will send out 160 separate trunks.
(Scientists speculate that the younger generation is standing by in case the
main mother trunk dies.)

Some are convinced that it was a climate change that took out the vast
majority of these magnificent trees two million years ago. Growing to the
height of 125 feet tall, there must have been thunderous deaths as the giant
trees fell. But in a narrow, deep, isolated canyon in the Australian
mountains a small grove of now fewer than 100 trees is quietly soldiering
on. Scientist estimates that one of the trees growing there now is over a
thousand years old. Some of the root systems may go back to the Roman
Empire.

“Wollemi” is an Aboriginal word. It means, “Look around you, keep your eyes
open, and watch out!” A very brief trip to England last week taught me many
important things. But that little tree standing alone in its humble pot is a
mystery. I suspect its existence is a powerful metaphor and parable for all
of us who assume we know more than we actually do.

There are those of us, of little faith, who assume we’ve seen the last of
our strength or our hope or our joy. We can get discouraged with the state
of the world, with the policies of our own government, with the
superficiality and materialism and violence of our culture. Our dreams of
global peace or inner peace can appear to be fleeting. Our confidence in
ourselves (or in those around us) can falter. Circumstances can appear to be
sending us and those we love towards extinction.

And then along come a small pine tree and announces, “Look around you. Keep
your eyes open. Stay watchful.” Keep your heart open. There is a life force
more persistent and creative and adaptive than you can possibly imagine. At
the very heart of reality is a miracle and a blessing that is strong enough
to survive even the most challenging of conditions. “I am alpha and omega. I
was there at the beginning. I will be there at the end.”

In your journey through this mystery: look at the splendor of spring; keep
your eyes open; pay attention. There is a resilience in you and all around
you. Breathe in the miracle and the gifts of today.






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