Addicted to the breath of Trees

John 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. .....
27 "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

Mark 14:34 "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." 35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

I've been puzzling over these two passages for a while now. Jesus says He won't ask the Father to save Him from this hour and then later He does ask. But I think there's a difference. In the verses from Mark, Jesus adds, 'if possible' and 'not what I will, but what you will.' One translation says 'if there be any other way.'
Once a yoga teacher friend and I were sitting in the park, breathing and watching our kids play some intricate imagination game. I say 'breathing' because breath was sacred to my friend.

"Breath is spirit," said my friend, "but I pray to Jesus."
"Why do you think Jesus had to die?" I asked.
"He didn't have to die, he should have lived."
"Well then God is really mean, because Jesus prayed to be spared from the cross if there were any other way. If there is any other way to an everlasting life with God, then God would have spared Him."

She and her son moved soon after that and Gabriel and I still miss them. We don't find people with our type of imagination very often. Where do you find a friend who wants to sit on a bench, breathing the breath of trees and talk about Creator while our sons make up some elaborate, medieval world?

'Overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,' said Jesus to His closest friends in the world,'watch and pray.' The cups of wine from the Passover Seder were just too much for them, they fell asleep.

Ps.88:18 You have taken my companions and loved ones from me;
the darkness is my closest friend.

I'm sure Jesus could relate to those words in that hour, in that garden, full of olive trees.

I'm grateful for this picture of Jesus, this passionate Messiah, filled with sorrow and resolve. He has been an example to me when my heart is troubled. I'm grateful for the breath of trees whether they are olive, palm or peach. And each of those trees started as a seed, dying in the earth, with darkness all around. So who knows what God has planned to grow in my heart.