CityView Magazine

14 | April 2019 O F A I T H Dogwood Christianity BY PASTOR MICHAEL COOK O n March 12 of last year, I visited Fayetteville for the first time in my life. I was interviewing for the position of Associate Pastor at Cross Creek Presbyterian Church. My wife and I le our five children (including 8-month-old twin boys) with my brave mother-in-law and flew to Fayetteville from Phoenix, where I had lived my entire life. ree months later, I accepted the church's offer to become its Associate Pastor and we moved. One of the beauties of North Carolina that caught our eyes immediately was all of the greenery and plant life. Coming from the desert, albeit a beautiful desert, I was not used to the color green. One of the plants that stunned us was the dogwood. Some dogwood trees had just begun to bloom. Wow. ey were beautiful. We marveled at the white and pink trees. Little did I know then that the dogwood is legendary. I doubt I'm going out on a limb here (pun intended) by asserting that most North Carolinians know the legend behind the tree. Or legends, since they are legion. According to one, the cross on which Christ was crucified was made with dogwood timbers. e story says the dogwood was stronger, sturdier and bigger in the days of Jesus than it is now. e dogwood was so crestfallen at its role in the crucifixion that it shrank in stature and twisted in shape so as never to be used in that way again. However pleasing this legend is to our hearts, we cannot will it to be true. But acknowledging this is not the same as discounting any possibility of seeing Christ in the dogwood. In fact, given the Bible's teaching, we would be wise to see in creation certain hints of the Christ as Creator. e Bible speaks of creation daily pouring forth speech about its beautiful Creator (Psalm 19). And in Jesus Christ's teaching on anxiety, he points his disciples to the lily that is clothed by its Creator (Matthew 6:28-30). God, who clothes the lily, will certainly clothe his children. How might the dogwood remind us of Christ? Its shape, for one, is most obvious. e four white or pink petal-like bracts that surround each flower are in the shape of a cross. e tiny tight yellow flowers at the center of the bracts are seen by some as the crown of thorns. e indentations on the ends of each bract resemble the dents of nails like those that pierced the hands of Jesus. And finally, the reddish hue surrounding the nail dents reminds us of the blood on the cross from Jesus' nailed hands. Now that I've heard these connections, it's hard not to be reminded of Christ when I look at the dogwood in bloom. As great as the dogwood is, there is a better tree spoken

• Cover