SOON Online Magazine

Stories

The Christ Tree by Susan Farrell

One moment, I was snuggled up amidst a bunch of my siblings, the next, I was plummeting to earth, at a horrific pace, to land with a resounding thud at the base of my mother's trunk. I lay breathless upon a bed of rotting leaves; feeling rejected and, oh, so lonely. Darkness was falling as I gazed up into the indigo sky and saw a star, shining brightly in the East. I felt strangely drawn to it. It looked as lonely as I was! I felt the earth tug at me and I could feel the moisture, left by the dew of the evening, creeping into my soul. Little did I know, that I had been born to grow (for one purpose and one purpose only) to bear the bleeding body of Christ, as he hung upon me to die. I grew from a tiny sapling into a tall, straight, and sturdy tree. I stood next to my mother and I soon overshadowed her old knar led branches. The years passed uneventfully enough until, quite unexpectedly, I heard the sound of marching feet approaching. The Centurions had come for me! The soldiers savagely attacked me. Again and again, their axes bit deep into my trunk until, at last, I crashed helplessly to the forest floor. I was carried through the forest on the shoulders of the Centurions, who took me to a carpenter. He stripped off my bark and sawed me into pieces. He hammered nails into me, bound me with rope, and fashioned me into the shape of a cross. His task complete, the carpenter dragged me out into the blinding sunlight and laid me upon the shoulder of a man called Simon, who was from Cyrene. I saw another man walking ahead of us; his face running red with blood, his head pierced by a crown of thorns. Instinctively, I knew that this was he, Jesus Christ! Born on the same starry night, Jesus and I began our slow and agonizing journey down the Via Dela Rosa, towards Golgotha; the place of skulls. I saw women weeping in the crowd and I heard Jesus say to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed! Then they will say to the mountains, fall on us! And to the hills, cover us! For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" (Luke 23, Vs 27-31). Upon reaching our grizzly destination, I was thrown to the ground. As a lamb to the slaughter, Jesus was laid upon my crossbeam and (with brutal hammer blows) nails were driven through Christ's flesh and into mine. Together, we were lifted on high and my soul cried out in protest. I, too, had been sacrificed so that Jesus Christ could fulfill his destiny to die, in agony, upon me; while bearing the sins of the world upon his shoulders so that mankind could live forever. And, I, willingly, gave my life for the Son of God.

© 2004 Susan Farrell

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