The Tree of Life

I took this photo on the way back from the Algarve a few months ago (Monchique, to be exact, which, by the way, makes a wonderful detour through rolling hills and forests if you want to drive on something different than motorway). The photo is simple - it’s some kind of random wildflower on the side of the road where we stopped for coffee. But it’s more than that. It’s a sun. it’s a cosmos. It’s a magnificent creation of a wonderful God. And it positively glows with His glory. God of the micro as well as the God of the macro.

I think that’s what I liked about “Tree of Life”, the film by Terence Malick which we watched in the cinema last weekend. The juxtaposition of Malick’s grand eloquent vision of the creation of the universe set beside images of the first days of a new born child. The exploration. The wonder of it all. This new world he finds himself in. Some will find “Tree of Life” long, tedious, pretentious. I found it wondrous, exalting, life affirming. And what narrative there is, (and there isn’t much) sought to establish early on in the movie the antithesis between nature and grace, which was developed through characters of the mother and the father and their approaches and responses to life. versus nature early on in the narrative

“There are two ways: the way of nature and the way of grace.

We must choose which way we will follow,”

“Nature tries to please itself, be noticed, etc.,

while grace is humble, doesn’t need recognition….”

The Bible says something similar, but in a different way

“The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit,

and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

They are in conflict with each other

.... But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law....

... So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

(Galatians 5:17,18)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/