The maple tree—a grand fixture of the southern Ontario landscape, brilliant during autumn. Indigenous peoples have long esteemed the maple tree as a great example of mutual reciprocity—that every single living thing contributes immensely to the good of the whole.
In spring, the buds sense the temperatures warming and light increasing, so they send hormonal signals down the trunk to the roots. This hormone triggers an enzyme which transforms starch stored in the roots into sugar. The increasing concentration of sugar in the roots creates osmotic pressure, drawing water in from the soil. The water dissolves the sugar and then streams upward—against gravity—to feed the buds.
This happens for only a few weeks, until the buds break out as fully-emerged leaves. Only then, when the leaves start making sugar on their own, does the sugar stream flow back downward in the opposite direction, from the leaves back down to the roots, now feeding the roots in return. Internal reciprocity. Each part of the tree mutually supporting each other.
God wants us to be fully the people we were created to be, for the good of all. Be conscious of the value, worth and dignity God has given you.
Self-giving God, today help me uphold my own and others’ dignity. Amen. —