Reflections on the Joshua Tree

This week, I had the wonderful opportunity to view the gorgeous desert sights of Joshua Tree National Park. The mountains were stunning as sunlight danced across them in various angles throughout the day. Desert animals were intriguing as they scurried across the paths of the hiking trails. And human interaction with the land was striking in its longevity and variety, including petroglyphs from a thousand years ago and a gold mill from the Depression era.

Each of these aspects of the park was fascinating and beautiful, but nothing grabbed me as deeply as the Joshua Trees themselves.

The experience of seeing hundreds and thousands of these unique trees throughout the park was not only intriguing but also meditative.

As we drove along the roads in the Mojave Desert, the breadth of the variety of these trees was truly striking. Each tree was shaped with brilliant uniqueness. Some had many branches lifting upward. Others had branches extending sidways, as if they were permanently blown in a hurricane. Some trees grew in a strange pattern with all the branches reaching downward, like an upside-down tree that might be created in some Dr. Seuss illustration!

Some trees were just beginning their life, stretching upward with no real branches yet. Others were clearly seasoned trees in the park with many years of life - with so many branches in so many different directions that they seemed to resemble Medusa with wild hair all over the place!

The variety was stunning and beautiful. I couldn't seem to take my eyes off those trees.

And some questions arose within me as well: What is behind all this variety? Why do these trees grow and branch so differently?

My intrigue with these trees seemed to create the possibilities for several parables to emerge within my thinking. And this was especially true when I learned how these trees grow.

Actually, Joshua Trees are not technically trees. They are yucca plants. And the branching patterns are not based on genetics or even largely on environment (after all, how could the patterns be so diverse in such a small environmental area?) The branching patterns are based on the blooming process.

After growing for about a decade without branches, Joshua Trees blossom in the spring. As soon as the flowering process is complete, the blossoms drop off, and from the dried stem, a new branch will appear. And that branch will grow with strength and vigor - at times in a completely different direction than might be expected! And years later, that branch will form a blossom, and yet another branch will move in its own direction!

Each branch is made of the same material as the trunk, and even though an individual branch is not as large as the trunk, it grows with the same strength. I find this aspect to be powerful.

This process seems to be a good reminder that we are always free to move in a different direction in our lives. Perhaps our lives began with difficulties and challenges that were larger than anything we could have created. At other times, we have made own mistakes through ignorance, disobedience, or short-sightedness.

And perhaps that new direction can begin with an unexpected blossom. Maybe it would be helpful for us to keep our eyes open so that we can see unexpected blessings and opportunities for growth. From these gifts, our lives can branch in new directions.

I wonder how that might happen in a new year.

-Renee Roederer, Director of Young Adult Ministries, Pasadena Presbyterian Church