What the?
The Site
The Bloodwood Tree is a meeting place for discussion on Biblical approaches to major issues faced by the Christian community. The site is run by Phil, based on the belief that if Christians live with the priorities given them in the Bible, we can again be a force to see God’s will done “on earth as it is in heaven”.
Posting a Comment
Comments are invited on all posts added to this site. The posts are put there by Phil, and unless indicated differently they are his work and interpretation. If you post a reply, please keep in mind that we’re looking here to work out together what a Christian response is to the issues raised. We want material to both reflect the priorities and character of God as given in the Bible, and to be factual and supported. Debate, disagree and question but please keep it friendly. Offensive comments will be removed, and if necessary the offender can be blocked from posting further comments. Unfortunately due to the massive amounts of spam your comment may not appear straight away as I’ll have to check it. Sorry about that.
Phil works in bushfire management and research. For the past 6 years he has been developing a fire behaviour model that can be used across different forest types.
The Bloodwood tree
The Bloodwood tree is a species that has great significance to the Ngarigo Aboriginal people from the Monaro. Their name for the tree was “Boona”, which was also the name of a woman local settlers in the 19th century decided to appoint as the “Queen of the Monaro Aborigines”. Despite their impression that they were doing the local people a favour, they did not know enough to realise that she was not actually from the Monaro, that they had no actual authority to do such a thing, and that Ngarigo society did not even have a king or queen. This is a potent reminder that we need our actions to not only be well-intentioned, but to be well informed and wise.
The Bloodwood tree can also be a reminder of what we’re about as Christians. At the centre of Christianity stands the cross, symbolising the absolutely opposite natures of a God of Love and a world of self-centred people, and the lengths that God went to for reconciliation. Christianity is not the one-off moment of decision, but the on-going decision to “Take up your cross” and follow Jesus. The cross is everything that’s wrong with the world - the sin, the suffering and the shame of the earth. To be Christian is to make it your problem, to say like Jesus that you will take whatever steps are necessary for reconciliation.