My name is Naomi. I am not well known; I have a handful of social media friends and am pretty much a complete newbie to all thing’s technology. While out walking and praying, as has become my habit these past months, I had a new experience of “hearing” God speak to me. I have heard lots of people say God “spoke” to them and I have always wondered what that meant and even now, I am not sure I could adequately describe it. It was not a voice per say but it was clear and audible to me on the inside…a strong sense of knowing. It was a strange phenomenon for me, but it was undeniably God. I know because He told me to write a blog! Had anyone else told me to do that I would have laughed out loud. I was not even sure what one was…and am learning here now as I go, so be patient with me.
Why the title of the blog? The concept of the two trees has come from a sermon I heard preached in 2019 by a well-known minister form the US, Bill Johnson, whom I heard for the first time at the Hillsong Conference. He spoke of our life of choices everyday as choosing between two trees, as it had been for Adam & Eve in the Genesis story of the trees in the Garden of Eden.
Why a blog? I had thought after the death of my mother in 2012 from cancer and then of my husband’s mother in 2018 that I would write a book. Both mothers had a strong faith that saw them through their cancer journey to their deaths. Each had a vastly different expression of their faith based on their upbringing, their life experiences and their confrontation with mortality. To have had the privilege of being loved by them both and to have been able to love and support them, along with all their children and grandchildren was one of God’s greatest gifts. Both were remarkable women and impacted their families, their friends and their caregivers in how they carried themselves through all of life’s challenges and triumphs. I felt their lives ought to be honoured in the telling of it and I hoped my observation and experience of them through the lens of that faith might be a help to others.
It was in the space between these two tragedies that my own health suffered and I thrust myself into all thing’s natural health. I read, I researched, I wrote copious notes. My list of subscriptions to health-related sites grew and as I “managed” my health challenges with the help of a range of health professionals, my supplements began to spill out and over much of the kitchen and my calendar was full of ongoing appointments. My faith was in tatters and I was increasingly led to more and more New Age material, all of which I drew on in my mother-in-law’s final months when the medical system said there was nothing more to do for her.
Then, the idea of the book took on a new perspective…my own cancer experience. Weeks before Mum passed away, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was no longer the observer telling the story of another’s life…now my own hung in the balance. Now decisions I had advised against in discussions with my mother’s regarding conventional treatment, I was forced to contemplate and make for myself. This was my moment of truth and it involved, on any given day, choices. Do I choose conventional or natural therapies? Which doctor do I see? Biopsy or no biopsy? Diets? Supplements? God or “Source/Universe/Self?
Hindsight is a marvellous thing. I am so grateful God heard my cry. A year down the track and in great health, I can look back and see how God pursued me, how He led me, cared for me, answered my prayers with amazing grace and brought me to an undeniable faith in His goodness and in His Word.
I hope in this blog to share aspects of my past year with you, the tears, trials and triumphs. This is not a cancer-survivor blog…even though that has been the outcome, thanks be to God. There are many inspiring stories of great courage and strength of character to draw upon.
I am not sure where God is taking you, the reader, and me on this journey. I have a story to tell. We all do. What I have been asked to share with you, I can only hope and pray that God will speak into your life through my story and will pursue you and then lead you to those places within you that He wants to change, as He has done me . He wants to help you, heal you, restore your wholeness. The question is, are you ready and willing to allow Him to take you into those deep places? It’s not a journey for the faint-hearted but if you approach Him as a child climbing joyously into His lap with the belief and expectation that He loves you as no one else could ever love you, it’s not risky at all.
Matthew 18:3 And Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of God”.
That is one of the trees! This may be your time to choose between the two trees He has placed before you.
