Parable 29 - Treehouse

It was a simple treehouse. Joseph, the father, was building it for his daughter, Betsey. It was a platform about eight feet up in the air, built on the branches of a walnut tree. It had three walls and a slanted roof with asphalt shingles. The father-and-daughter team had built the treehouse over the course of a three-day weekend.

Although no one else could see him, there was a third member of the building crew who was ever present. His name was Grampa, and he had passed away two years earlier. Eight-year-old Betsey remembered him well—always kind, always telling jokes, always willing to talk, always giving giant bear hugs.

Joseph kept reminding Betsey that Grampa had built a treehouse for him when he was eight years old. Joseph said, “What I am doing for you now, perhaps one day you will do with your own child.” Joseph couldn’t actually remember all the details that went into building his treehouse with his father, but he remembered a drawing of what it would look like and a list of all the supplies they would need before they started. He remembered that his dad let him drive nails into the base to secure it, and most of those nails went in crooked.

Now Betsey was learning to hammer in nails.

“Why don’t you try that again,” Joseph said to his daughter when she bent a nail in half while hammering it. “Let’s pull that one out so you can hit it in straight.”

A few minutes later, Betsey asked, “Where did you learn to do all of this, Dad?”

“You know, Betsey, Grampa showed me how to do it when I was a kid. And Grampa built stuff his entire life—a shelf here, a cabinet there, and of course my treehouse when I was your age.”

“Is my treehouse just like yours?”

“They are similar. One thing is for sure—my dad taught me how to imagine something and then make a plan to build it. We start by imagining what we want.”

“Dad, what I want is a window in the wall facing the door. Can we put one in?”

Joseph smiled. “Yes. Use this pencil to draw on the wall the size and shape of your window.”

Meditation

Our scripture today links Jesus to God the Father in a powerful way. Jesus can do only that which the Father does. And so it is with us, too. Creation is in the hands of God. Most of us occasionally wonder about what is possible. Without God nothing is possible, because God is essential to life.

The life we have experienced, and the life we share with our children and grandchildren, sets the stage for all that is to come. We can do nothing apart from it. This is why we must reflect on our lives if we are to see what is possible. There is that which has happened in the past, but we can also recognize what we long to do, even when we have never done it. God puts in us holy desires for new things. When we act upon these holy desires, we sometimes bring into the world a brand-new creation.

It’s likely that God is calling us to build something this Lenten season—perhaps a bridge to a fractured relationship, maybe a new exercise routine to get healthy, or possibly a deeper prayer life to become closer to God. With God all things are possible. Let’s pick up the hammer and build the treehouse that our Father has put in our imagination.

Water the seed and ask yourself...

What is God showing me how to build?