{"id":199,"date":"2015-01-27T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T08:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithgod\/?p=199"},"modified":"2015-02-15T17:09:42","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T01:09:42","slug":"god-and-beauty-if-no-one-sees-it-is-it-really-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithgod\/2015\/01\/god-and-beauty-if-no-one-sees-it-is-it-really-there\/","title":{"rendered":"God and Beauty — If No One Sees It, Is It Really There?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"White<\/a>
A wild tangle of blossoms and twigs \u2014 I had only a few minutes time to spend with all this beauty. My \u00a0feet were getting wet and there was work to do back in my writing room. \u00a0Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

It was February, early spring in California, when I spotted a wild fruit tree \u2013 an apple? a plum? \u2013 blossoming in the canyon below our house. Was it really a flowering tree\u00a0down there in that steep, dry, unlikely place? Was I seeing things?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never noticed a tree in that spot\u00a0before. It was barely visible from our house, surrounded on all sides as it was by more predictable trees: A rangy bay laurel and its offspring. A couple of young and aggressive live oaks. An aging Monterey pine. An anonymous shrub with red berries that I had never much liked.<\/p>\n

I got up from my desk and went outdoors to get a better look at the cloudy white tree, only to lose sight of it entirely from the vantage point of our back door. It\u2019s probably a beautiful thing, I thought, if only I could get a good look at it. What a waste. All that splendor hidden away with no one to pay homage to it.<\/p>\n

Later in the week I decided to make my way down the hill and appreciate that tree up close. Take a picture. Record the poignant, fleeting lives of those white blossoms. I put on my hiking boots and a pair of old, expendable pants, grabbed our camera, and made the steep downhill journey through mud, blackberry, \u00a0sourgrass, and a rotting tree stump.<\/p>\n

When I finally reached the hidden tree, I saw that it was a tangled mass of limbs, branches and twigs, many of them dead. It\u2019s clear that\u00a0no gardener prunes or tends<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
Thousands and thousands of blossom hidden from view. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

this tree. It\u2019s on its own. And this season, without human help, it has produced thousands and thousands of small white flowers, each one quietly surging with life and \u2013 it seemed to me \u2013 intention.<\/p>\n

I snapped my pictures, but I did not linger under the tree. I couldn\u2019t get much of a foothold on the muddy hillside and my feet were getting wet. Also, I needed to get back to my writing room. I had work to do.<\/a><\/p>\n

A Meyer lemon tree? A plum? The result of a chewed apple core I threw down the canyon from our deck years ago?<\/p>\n

Picking my way back up the slippery hillside, I felt satisfied that this patch of beauty had not gone unappreciated. I had personally given it its full fifteen minutes of fame. Back at the house I kicked off my muddy boots and thought of the proverbial tree falling in the woods. If no one hears it crash, does it make a sound?<\/p>\n

And if\u00a0no one can see this small tree bloom, is it beautiful? What if I hadn\u2019t been here to take note \u2013 and a snapshot? Could that cloud of white blossoms have been beautiful without me? Without a beholder, is there beauty?<\/p>\n

Maybe God is like that tree, hidden and beautiful whether I show up with my camera or not.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02015 Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

A version of this essay first appeared on <\/em>www.BarbaraFalconerNewhall.com<\/em><\/a>, where Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life, family, books, writing, and her rocky spiritual journey. Her interfaith book, <\/em>Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith will be released this season\u00a0by Patheos Press.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Barbara Falconer Newhall It was February, early spring in California, when I spotted a wild fruit tree \u2013 an apple? a plum? \u2013 blossoming in the canyon below our house. Was it really a flowering tree\u00a0down there in that steep, dry, unlikely place? 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