Trees

Imagine you're Adam or Eve, standing in the Garden of Eden. You're angry at Adam for not saying something--how can he even be mad when he didn't even try to stop you? He ate the fruit too! You're mad at Eve for taking the fruit--didn't she know better? Do you have to do everything for her? You have been fighting. Fighting for the first time in your human existence. It feels foreign and broken. You feel self-conscious and naked; vulnerable and dirty. Your shame is slowly iced over by anger. And then, you hear God coming, so you hide in the...

Trees. 

"I know where you stand

Silent in the trees

And that's where I am

Silent in the trees.

Why won't you speak

Where I happen to be?

Silent in the trees

Standing cowardly.

"I can feel your breath.

I can feel my death.

I want to know you.

I want to see.

I want to say, hello." *

After all I've done, God? 

Yes. You broke yourself apart, but I made you, so I know how to put you back together again.

Will you come out of the trees and say hello to me?

*   *   *

Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, when you hear His voice do not harden your hearts. 

Come out from the trees, into the light that you may receive healing. 

*The song Trees is by Twenty-One Pilots. All italics in quotation marks are their lyrics.