When someone is talking to me, I often look at them intently. When I am processing something out loud or in deep thought as I speak, I look around and I notice EVERYTHING. The chipped paint, the crooked picture, the moving clouds, the fly buzzing back and forth. My eyes dart because I assume my brain is connecting neural pathways to formulate my thoughts. LOL…or something like that!
Today as I was talking to Stephen in our living room, my eyes were bouncing on the tall trees across the street from us. Suddenly one thin, yet very tall tree began to fall backwards. I exclaimed, “Woah…” Rather silently and in a drawn out fashion as Stephen turned his head to where my eyes were fixed. “What?!”, he asked. ::CRASH:: I heard the tree fall. I began to tell him that a tree had just fallen and asked if he had heard it. He did not hear it because he didn’t know that it was falling. His brain wasn’t seeking to listen to for a tree falling, it was listening to me talking.
The funny and philosophical question has been around and even altered for ages that states, “If a tree fell in a forest and no one was around to hear it, does it make a sound?”. Of course there are MANY ways to look at this question. What is sound? Was there a woman around? Haha! What about animals?
When I thought about what happened today and putting into context with living in Madagascar, I wanted to write about this. You see, I was looking intently at the tree before it fell. My eyes were fixed on it as it fell and I then was listening to hear it make a sound. Stephen however didn’t see it falling and therefore didn’t hear the sound at all. I wonder how many times we’re not seeing things, therefore we don’t know that they are a problem. I wonder how often there are things on God’s heart that we’re have blind eye or a deaf ear towards. Clearly Stephen wasn’t in the wrong for listening to me and not watching trees haha, but it was such an interesting thought to me when this occurred.
There are many intense issues facing Madagascar. One happens to involve trees and the fact that this is one of the last remaining tropical rainforest biomes in the world and it is vanishing quickly. Stephen saw some of the larger species of lemurs this weekend in the rain forest named Indri. They are about 2 &1/2’ to 3’ lemurs! Honestly, they sort of creep me out. What’s even crazier is that there used to be lemurs up to 6’ tall!! Um hello to peeing your pants on a hike in the rainforest when that guy jumps across your path! ((Just being honest)) While I may not have wanted to encounter such a large jumping creature, it makes me sad that their homes were destroyed and that they are no more. Madagascar has often been called, “the bleeding island”, because from satellites the red top soil from the forest is being washed into the ocean as if it were bleeding. There is a man here who is a “tree missionary” and is replanting species of trees and working to save the environment here in this beautiful place.
While these things are super important and need to be taken care of, there are some major issues effecting people. The poverty these people face, the diseases they encounter, the lack of education. The horrible human trafficking issues. The equally disturbing organ trafficking issues (yes where people are killed for their organs and they’re shipped off to the orient for medicinal and sacrifice purposes!). Those issues are very very real and they are going on every day here. While we can’t change every single problem and it’s easy to be overwhelmed by any one of these things, if we partner with God’s heart we can at least be looking for the falling trees. The ones who are the people we can pray for to receive healing. The ones who we can feed and clothe. The new generation of people who can become more educated and can grow in the knowledge of God’s word. The women who can know a life of freedom from prostitution and trafficking. Even the lemurs who can have new homes because someone was raised up to care and protect their habitats.
Even if philiosophically the tree falling alone doesn’t make a sound, God sees it fall. AND God sees every person who no one else sees. He sees you. He sees your neighbor. He sees your co-worker. He sees the woman lost in selling her body. He sees the man lost in cheating on his spouse. He sees the teenager cutting their body. AND He cares. AND He sends you and I with His heart to share His love.
Be watching and be listening. You’re planted in His kingdom to be on the look out for falling trees ;-)