The Trees in Winter

This time last year, during the winter lockdown in Athens, we spent a lot of time walking the lower slopes of Mount Ymittos on the eastern side of the city.  (Athens is surrounded on three sides by mountains, Parnetha to the west, Penteli to the north, and Ymittos to the east). It was fascinating watching the trees change as the Greek winter set in. And, a proper winter season it turned out to be. With strong winds and showers. We even had one memorable week, when a foot of snow turned our neighbourhood into a winter wonderland. It was particularly odd to see the orange trees with a covering of snow - the fruit continues to tenaciously hold on to the branches.

Again, last year in Athens, I remember talking on this, the “trees in winter”, to our small group that met in our house through lockdown in Athens on the first Sunday of advent. I talked about two “trees in winter” that Luke mentions at the beginning of his Gospel. Zechariah and Simeon, two old men, who were carrying on their traditions, going through life, and yet, at the same time carried within them the seed of a hope of the coming Messiah. And each one responding very differently to the realisation of that hope, one with shock and disbelief, the other with eager expectation and joy.

Today, I find even more hope in a word from Psalm 92, about trees.

“The righteous” it says “will flourish like a palm tree … 

.... grow like a cedar of Lebanon…

 ..they will still bear fruit in old age, 

     they will stay fresh and green.”  

Nice!