Everyday Encounter with God

EVERYDAY ENCOUNTER WITH GOD

Pastor Sylvia's Enconters with God in the Midst of Everyday Life

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A weekly column that is short, pithy and relevant. It deals with Pastor Sylvia's encounters with God in the midst of everyday life.

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The Bottle Tree

Last week while remembering my childhood and its weekend family trips to the beach, I also recalled a curiosity we saw along the way: a tree covered with bottles hanging from the branches instead of leaves. My younger siblings and I always watched intently for the yard that held such a breathtaking oddity. I never understood that bottle trees have meaning, although I always wanted to have one of my own.

Bottle trees have their roots in Congo culture. The practice was brought over by slaves who hung blue bottles from trees and huts as talismans to ward off evil spirits. It is believed that the spirits become mesmerized by the colors of the bottles in the sun. Once they entered the bottle, they couldn’t find their way out, sort of like roach motels or fish traps for marooned sailors.

According to Wikipedia, "Glass bottle trees originated in Northern Africa during a period when superstitious people believed that a genii or imp could be captured in a glass bottle. Legend had it that empty glass bottles placed outside the home could ‘capture’ roving (usually evil) spirits at night, and the spirit would be destroyed the next day in the sunshine. This practice was taken to Europe and North America by African slaves.

“While Europeans adapted them into hollow glass spheres known as ‘witch balls,’ the practice of hanging bottles in trees became widespread in the Southern states of North America, where they continue to be used today as colorful garden ornaments."

Well, not exactly, as Africans don't believe in genies or imps—wrong culture Wiki, but you get the general idea.

Later, bottle trees sometimes became a means to honor someone who had died, a beautiful piece of art created for a soul that had passed to the other side.

Little is known about early glassmaking. It is generally believed to have started over 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. The Roman historian, Pliny attributed it to the Phoenicians. Blue glass came along even later. We sometimes forget that the glass bottles we take for granted (and throw away) today would have been rare and precious during biblical times.

While Husband and I were moving into our “forever home,” his daughter succumbed to brain cancer. We never really had sufficient time to say good bye, or honor her, or grieve, or hold our memories of her with tenderness. So this weekend while his son (her brother) was visiting for a long weekend from California, he and his dad made a bottle tree for our back yard.

Just because we know now that certain conditions cause illness and that germs cause infection, there's no reason to completely abandon the traditions of a bygone era. The guys installed our bottle tree as a homage to someone we loved. She would have loved the idea of culturally influenced art. Construction was every bit as respectful and reverently meaningful as trees made hundreds of years ago.

This new artwork is six feet tall with a heavy wooden trunk and beautiful limbs made from dowels, all painted white. They dug a post hole and secured it in concrete after carefully placing a picture of her in the earth. The limbs now hold 3-dozen bottles—clear, blue, and green. There is room for a dozen more colors and sizes as we find them. There is a lovely soil area covering the base of the bottle tree. When spring has taken a more courageous hold of the weather I will plant sweet peas, her favorite flowers.

Tonight I’m a little like Husband was after he dug our first Koi pond. “It’s really amazing! Do you think we should also put one in the front of the house?” (Feel free to give me your opinion.)