Tree of Life

Commission

Oil on Linen
© 2023 Adelaine Nohara
“Tree of Life”

This image was commissioned as a baptismal gift for a precious little boy, born to a Middle-Eastern father and Celtic mother.

It features a Celtic cross with trinity knots and other traditional Irish designs. Celtic crosses first appeared in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages, through the influence of Christian missionaries. What distinguishes the Celtic cross from other crosses is the center ring, which represents infinite love. A circle – having no beginning and no end – is a symbol of God’s everlasting love. It can also represent the halo or holiness of Christ. Today, Celtic crosses are a trademark of Celtic Christianity and Irish pride.

Set behind the cross is a cedar of Lebanon – the majestic tree of the Middle-East, cherished by Lebanon as its national emblem. The cedar symbolizes endurance, strength, and eternal life. In the Word of God, Cedars are mentioned in several contexts: They are sign of God’s power and goodness in planting them, as well as a figure of prosperity, abundance and luxury. Cedar wood lined the palace of David and Solomon. David lamented to the prophet Nathan, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent” (1 Chronicles 17:1), inspiring his desire to honor the Lord with a Temple. In Scripture’s mystical love song, the cedar betokens the appearance of the Beloved – the very beauty and glory of Christ (Song of Solomon 5:15). At the same time, the Lord’s ability to break and burn even the cedar is a Biblical call to humility and the remembrance of divine judgment (Jeremiah 22; Ezekiel 31; Zechariah 11:1).

This image is entitled “Tree of Life” for two reasons. Firstly, because it contains the tree of Lebanon and the tree of the Celtic cross, it captures the ancestral heritage of the little boy sitting at their base – the source of his biological life. More deeply, it represents this child’s spiritual heritage: the grace that claimed his soul in Baptism, making him a son of the living God – the source of his spiritual life. Set against the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” that our first parents ate from in sin, the Cross of Jesus is the “Tree of Life” whose fruit is the pledge of our salvation: the Body and Blood of Christ, savored in the Eucharist.

May this child grow up contemplating his spiritual heritage as a son of God’s Kingdom, destined to partake of the fruit of that great Tree on His First Communion day, and to sit with Christ at table in the Heavenly Jerusalem.