When the Okanagan Mountain Park fires were first raging near Kelowna, one of the earliest impressions I had was of the natural cycle of regeneration. I remembered a special I had seen on the American National Parks system in 1989 where the ecologists and forestry specialists recalled that before the days of managed forests, fires were part of a natural cycle. When European settlers arrived, our interests focused on control and management; we were concerned with safety, and with economics.

But like other kinds of interference in natural processes, we were messing with mystery. We were out of our depth, but convinced that we knew best. The natural seven to ten year cycle of small fires ended. The result was a build up of fuel, and old and disease ridden forests. We were profoundly conservative, and ignored the risks of that conservatism.

When fires are allowed to occur naturally and more frequently, the result is renewal and regeneration. Small fires have less fuel to use, and are not as hot. As a result, they tend to stay near the ground and don't make their way to the crown of the tree. Bark has a certain resistance to fire, in particular the thick bark of pine trees. There are usually few branches down low, and so a cooler fire is less likely to make it to the crowns of trees, where it can be fanned by the wind and do the most destruction.

Furthermore, a cooler fire doesn't destroy the ability of the tree to reproduce. And it doesn't harm the soil, killing important bacteria and destroying nutrients.

I wonder.. if the church was less concerned with self-preservation.. if we were less concerned with management and control... if we were concerned with love and transformation and not conservation... would we experience a natural cycle of death and rebirth? Would we remain more in touch with our culture, changing and adapting to changing times? Would we have experienced less destruction when change finally came? Would we have healthier family (community) systems?

Thankfully, God remains sovereign (see also Job 7:14 and following) and the cultural shaking that is occurring is resulting in the death of an old system and the birth of a new and healthier one. We are returning to our roots. We are less concerned with management and control and security, and more concerned with life. But the cost to get here has been immense, and could have been so much less if we had been less afraid of change.

I have had an image in mind as I wrote these words. The image is a painting of a pine tree by a local brother named John Revill. It's hard to convey the impact this picture made on me the first time I saw it. John had stopped by to visit and brought the newly finished picture with him. It was as if I was looking beyond the tree itself to God's idea of the pine tree. I saw the truth of it; it's deep beauty and purpose. The tree seemed to have an inner light. John's ability to work with a variety of media and textures was powerfully evident... the image itself seemed alive.

It calls to mind Psalm 1..

How blessed is the one
who does not walk in the way of the wicked,
Nor stand in the way of the sinner,
Nor sit in the seat of the scoffer..
For he will be like a tree
Planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither..