Inspire

This week is National Reconciliation Week. The theme for this year is Now More than Ever, and there are a series of resources available on the Common Grace website to support our learning and understanding about how we can support this theme as Christians.

Adapted from Bianca Manning and Dr Aunty Jean Phillips

Nature is a wonderful teacher that reminds us of deep truths to inspire our engagement with life, reconciliation and justice. After a bushfire rages through a eucalypt forest, when the trunks are blackened and leaves have been burnt to a crisp, a fascinating process of new life takes effect. Green shoots, leaves full of life, begin to grow all over the trunk and branches. These are called epicormic shoots. If you have ever witnessed this, I’m sure you were amazed at how new life could emerge out of such a tragic, desolate and harmful situation. 

These surviving trees are sometimes called upside-down trees, with new leaves sprouting on the trunks and the high branches left empty to resemble roots floating in the sky. Upside-down trees remind us of the upside-down Kingdom that Jesus leads us into. Where death leads to life, beauty emerges from the ashes, suffering and mourning are turned into joy in His presence and hope always persists. 

In many ways, last year felt like a bushfire year for our First Nations Australians. Yet First Nations peoples are regrouping and showing incredible resilience, and many non-Indigenous Australians continue their commitment to walk alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on this long journey of truth, justice and collective healing. 

This Reconciliation Week, I encourage you to listen to Elders from the Church such as Dr Aunty Anne Pattel-Gray, Dr Aunty Jean Phillips and the late Pastor George Rosendale. 

Adapted from: https://www.commongrace.org.au/national_reconciliation_week_2024

Submitted by Lucy Bakewell