Two Trees

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

I read a couple of quotes that I found interesting this morning. It seems like such a long time ago and the inspiration that I had at that time before running out the door for a day of music lessons and other activities that fill our day.  So It is 10:30 at night and I have about a half an hour before I will need to call it a night so I guess we will see how far I get with this tonight.

"Sigmund Freud realized that the cause of man's depression was guilt, just as any honest seeker of truth will find if searching fo the root of man's confusion. But he could not see past the tree of knowledge and suposed that the remedy was to be found in the very fruit that was the cause of the problem. Instead of teaching that relief from guilt and resulting depression was to be found in doing what was right, he began to attack what he considered un realistic morals and standards. " Rick Joyner page 20-21 There were Two Trees in the Garden.

So I am reading this book in my quest to get a better handle on the Tree of Life mosaic project that I plan to do in the near future. Generally when I get an idea for a big mosaic like the Beloved Project, or the Waiting Angel I have a moment or a time where the inspiration is very clear in my mind. It is during that time that I try to capture some rough sketches of that inspiration. It becomes the frame work from which I will later work.  I have currently done two sketches for the Tree of Life Project. 

This is the first one I did and my idea was that we as believers are ingrafted into the Tree of Life. As we abide in Jesus we bear fruit.
So you see the couple at the base of the tree - again kind of like the Beloved project in that everything flows out of that abiding love relationship with Jesus.

The second one is loosly based upon a dream my husband had of a tree coming down from heaven with roots that dug into the soil.  You can see in it how the roots of the tree go down into the heart of the earth and bind together what was once broken. The river of God's presence flows through and also brings healing. Again you still have the Beloved couple beneath the tree. Intimacy with Jesus is a strong theme that is on my heart to communicate.  I liked the verse that I found to go with this one. All in all I just don't have the sense that I have nailed this one yet and so I am continuing to let it stew and mull around in my head.

"So I read another quote in the same book this morning. "Neither is man truly free to live in this world without the restrictions that God place upon him. The very thing that confines man is what sets him free to be what he was created to be."

So I think of that quote in relationship to my life as art and the art work that I do. I am most free when I have boundaries that are secure. When I know where those lines are I am able to be fully creative within them. In a sense I am not so much trying to see this project in finite detail but more to understand where the boundaries of truth fall concerning it. I need to get a handle on what is the message or the inspiration of the piece.  Here are the opening words from the first chapter of the book There were Two Trees in the garden. "There were two trees in the Garden of Eden which challenged the course of the entire human race - the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. These same two trees continue to challenge us. When one becomes a Christian, challenges do not end - they increase. Many times a day we must choose between the fruit of these trees. Between them lies the focal point of dichotomy between the Kingdom of God and the present evil age.

The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life are symbolic of two spiritual lineages, or family trees. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the history of two lineages. Understanding these two lineages can help us to understand the most common errors besetting the human race, including the Church"

I've had the book for a month now and just have not had the time to really read it. I am hoping to find some quiet reading time during the next couple of weeks to finish this book and hopefully come to some sense of where I am going with this project.

I guess in one sense I trust that the Lord will bring the inspiration that I need to take the steps of faith to decided on things like the size and shape and to begin to draw it on the supporting structure.
I've been thinking I might want it to be some what transparant.  It is a funny sense that I have - when things feel right.  While I try not to base a lot of decisions on "feeling" I don't discount them entirely.

I was thinking about the guilt thing in the first quote. I know a lot of people that struggle with mental illness and depression. That whole subject is one that I find hard to draw nice black and white lines. How much is chemical, how much is demonic oppression, how much is the cumulative effect of a life filled with guilt and regrets. I guess I get frustrated by those who feel that a happy pill will solve everything for people. While I can see that can be a tool in the process I think that without looking at the effects of guilt and regrets, and admitting that we do live in the battle ground of a spiritual war I just don't think we really get to the roots of the problem and we just are putting bandaids on things that require surgery to repair.  Not sure why I'm going down this path tonight. I certainly don't claim to be be an expert on the subject. I do know that in my own life Jesus often takes me through layers of things before getting down to the deeper roots. I guess I have learned to trust His timing and some of the interesting ways that he brings things to my attention. 


I guess my thought are a little tangled tonight like the roots of this tree I am trying to understand.

I know you and I have been part of the old Tree of Knowledge linage and we must get beyond thinking our knowledge and ability to reason is going to turn things around. We must turn to Jesus, we need the Tree of Life. We must abide in Him. If we abide in Him then our lives bear fruit. If we accept what He has done for us in paying the price for the penalty which our sin deserves. Then we can begin to release all that guilt and shame to Him.  He is willing to forgive us, He is willing to set us free to a new life in Him. I guess we have to decide which family tree we want to be part of. The Tree of Knowledge has had a long time to saturate life as we know it. We can keep trying to fix things within a broken system or we can accept the new life and the healing and fruit of the Tree of Life found in Jesus.

Prayer
Dear Lord,
Will you take these words that I've written and let what is vital to each reader jump out to them. I pray that little nugget would inspire them and help them like an important missing puzzel piece. That some how this along with other things that you have been speaking to them would some how connect and the bigger picture of your plan would become clearer. I pray that you bless them with your wisdom and your peace as they seek to know you in greater intimacy.

Tree of Life

A Devotional By Margot Cioccio

Ezekiel 47:12 

"Fruit trees of all kinds 
will grow on both banks 
of the river. Their leaves 
will not wither nor will 
their fruit fail. 
Every month they 
will bear fruit because 
of the water from the sanctuary 
flows to them. Their fruit 
will serve as food and 
their leaves for healing.

I have been thinking about the next mosaic project. To bring you up to speed. I posted a poll on face book with choices of projects people might be interested in following like they did the Beloved project.  I had suggested a Nativity, a mosic guitar, a clear project of a lighthouse, one called the Train of His Robe Fills the Temple.  While the poll was open some other suggestions were made. One of those was called Tree of Life. It turns out that was the favorite. So I am at the very beginning of the creative process trying to figure out what that project is.  I feel a bit like Michalenglo studing a block of marble. Some how he was able to see the sculpture trapped inside the marble. He would study it for a long long time before he ever took tools to the stone.  

The creative process is an interesting thing. Once you can see it in your head it is just a matter of the journey to get from here to there. In the book Your Life as Art by Robert Fritz he writes: "Painters use this ability constantly, managing two distinct data points, the painting in their vision and the painting on thier canvas. This is one of the keys to creating your life as art, holding two pictures in your mind at once, the desired state of your life viewed against the actual state of your life."   He calls this structural tension and it is a good thing that propells you towards the desired end. 

I know on the Beloved Project, I saw it very clearly when I made the initial sketch but it took me a long time to be able to get to the next step of drawing it larger on the big board. My vision was too small.  I don't know if it was all of the stress in my life at that time that stalled the creative process but I just could not bring myself to go any further. Then I did get it drawn and was stuck at that point again for a very long time. Again something blocked my ability at that point to feel the piece at that point. 

Something in my heart and mind finnally somehow merged and it was like a light bulb turned on and I could both see and feel the piece. "Life on the road requires recollection of our Love's past deeds on our behalf and his promise of continued faithfulness to us. We need courage and patience and those are strengthened by remembering. We will need memory, which is to say we will need faith. Faith looks back and draws courage; hope looks ahead and keeps desire alive."John Eldredge from The Sacred Romance.  Perhaps the finished Beloved Project is just a rough sketch of a deeper desire. Its hard to explain and Robert Fritz in his books Your Life as Art and The Path of least Resistance probably does a better job than I. Its been a while since I read them- I think I may have to read them over again. 
But there is something powerful in holding in your mind where you are presently on your journey and where you desire to be.  It is out of that that what is in between is like water flowing down hill. It can't help itself it takes that path of least resistance to reaching the desired end. 

The Beloved Project came like a vision. It was just suddenly there and I was doing my best to capture it quickly in a sketch. The Tree of Life did not come with a vision, at least not yet. So I am reading verses and trying to begin to understand what it is that is in my block of marble so I can begin to set it free. You see a first sketch here in this post. I can kind of see angels with flaming swords on the sides and a path way in the shape of a cross that leads up to the tree. The trunk is of Jesus and someone who is loving to spend time with him. They are embracing to form the trunk. The branches are also made of people who are enjoying His presence. Joy swings, and one worships while playing a guitar, others bear fruit or harvest fruit.  

The verse above has been speaking to me today.  They do not wither and they bear fruit because of the river that flows from the sanctuary.  Which takes me to the Tree of Life in His Presence.  The more we are touched by the living water that flows from His presence the more we are transformed and changed into his likeness. 

It will be interesting to see where this project goes. I do know that I have to at least understand the structure of the project, the detail seems to have a mind of its own and comes almost like my hands are directed by the hand of God. I feel that especially when I do faces out of glass. I can't explain how it happens it is well beyond my skill or ability. It is a spiritual communion of sorts with the Holy Spirit. 

Well I should end this - I hope it makes sense and speaks to someone reading.  It took me a long time to grab a hold of the creative process and understand that I could apply it to more than art.  Its ok to make life sketchs, or to experiment with your best guess at what might work, to hypothesize, to dream, to imagine to test it out. Sometimes it just takes someone to believe, we are able to figure things out. I will figure out this Tree of Life project, I can't say for sure how long it will take. Every journey begins with a first step of faith into an unknown future.  Make it an adventure hand in hand with the Lover of your soul.  

Prayer
Dear Lord, 
Help us to understand the art that is our life. Help us to sketch out the rough ideas and to experiment with what the finish project might look like. Help us to ask the right questions to discover and uncover the deep things that are hidden for us to search out. Saturate us with the water that flows from the sanctuary of your presence and transform us for your glory.