This magnificent Tree has been a significant part of my life since I was a small child. Since as early as I can remember – about two or three years old, I used to watch my parents interact and fight, and experience immense anxiety as a result. One day I burst out with ‘when are you going to take me to the Sycamore Tree?’ Their reactions on their faces, I will never forget it. Why did they not understand me? But I was obsessed with the Tree, and never stopped talking about it.
Well, turns out that Sycamore doesn’t grow in Brisbane – a practicality that perplexed me. I was one of those girls who would climb trees and sit and feel the wind in my hair and peace way up high in a tree that could ‘talk’ to me, that was around 150 years old. The one I climbed as a massive Camphor-Laurel, and she was old, and stoic, and true. She would comfort me, like an old grandmother might and I allow me to climb over all her hobbled joints to support me, and lift me higher than I would ever imagine. I even taught my dogs to climb the trees and join me on the carport that swayed when I pretended to surf it as the joists swayed and hovered unused to the play from children on its back (hey it was the 1970s, this was normal).
Just a few years ago, I learned the greater significance of the Sycamore Tree. According to my Mum, now passed, I didn’t stop drawing trees, on ANYTHING I could get my hands on. I drew them constantly, as a way to appease my anxiety (and I was an incredibly anxious and shy child). She could come into my room and there were texts and books, and scraps of paper, all covered in trees.
Trees have long since played an important part of life on Earth, not only do they sigh long, generous and loving gasps of oxygen, they breathe in the toxic vaporous carbon dioxides that humans are renowned for creating. These are trees that specfically stand about 170 feet high, and grow all around the world. Appearing in ancient writings, artworks and myths, the Sycamore Tree specifically was a tree of both hope and protection, having existed for more than 100 milion years, and is native to Sudan, in Africa. It gets its name from the ancient Greek word ‘sūkomoros’ (meaning ‘fig-mulberry’) and yes, I adored silkworms, and mulberry trees, too
In gematria, the Sycamore Tree shows as “purity”, the “message from God’, “Mount Zion” and “entering Heaven”. This I would agree with! It classically symbolises strength, protection, eternity and divinity showing up in many significant ancient texts, including “The Book of Going Forth by the Light of Day”, and has a significant role in the Bible. General Washington took shade under a 168 year old Sycamore in Pennsylvania.
I was amazed to learn the Sycamore Tree played an important role in protecting the chapel of St Paul built in 1766 at ground zero, taking the full brunt force of the load from the World Trade Centre in New York. The brunt of the force forced the tree to fall in such a way that it spread its branches across the chapel, creating a shield from the shockwaves, preserving St Paul’s Chapel of the Trinity Church, including a direct hit from an I-Beam from the North Tower, which would have meant certain destruction. Miraculously, not one single pane of glass broke. This astounded me, because 911 was the event where God showed me I had very clear vision, unlike millions, I was awake through 911, having been shocked to my core some years before with the Rwandan Massacre. You could say this was my heartfelt connection to the pain and suffering felt and expressed by humanity at the horrendous loss experienced that day. To learn that the Sycamore Tree had a role to play in that event, was extremely touching for me.
My mother made up my name “Petah” but apparently there is nothing new under the sun. Turns out there is a town in Israel, called Petah Tikva. I was stunned to learn it is the home to many, Sycamore trees in Israel and has been for hundreds if not thousands of years. The name Petah Tikva means ‘the opening of Hope’ and is the home of the greatest and oldest Sycamore Trees in all of the Middle East. And no, my travels haven’t led me to Israel yet, but next trip, for sure.
“The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” Isaiah 9:10
In fact, there are 9 instances of the Sycamore in the Bible including this one – which I just love:
The Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, ‘Be uprooted, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you”
Luke 17:6
One of the most popular entries was about Zaccheus, standing in a Sycamore Tree (something I can really relate with), so that he could see Jesus coming along the path. The Sycamore symbolises the place in a person’s life where he has a clear vision of God or Jesus.
In Ancient Egypt, the Sycamore Tree represented the embodiment of the deities of Femininity – namely Nut (the Sky Goddess), her daughter Isis and her sister Hathor, known as the Lady of the Sycamore. They would regard the movement of the leaves as the presence of God and the healing and protection forces of God that would come through the life force of the tree which was never wasted. They used it for creating sturdy tools, caskets, the resin was prized and used for healing medicines, and considered to bestow immortality. It is a noble tree, known as the Tree of Life in Egypt and Syria and Israel.
Bear in mind I knew nothing about this as a child, I just liked the sound of the name, and I loved every song, every poem and every verse that used the word Sycamore, and I still do. So much so, that I named my business Sycamore Wellbeing in 2016, because I just liked the sound of it, little did I know the intricacies it would hold for me the more I delved into it. And nothing surprised me more than at New Years day in 2020, when after weeks and weeks of working together on WANDS helping people impacted by the Australian Bush Fires, a ship called the MV Sycamore which holds a crew of 19 civilians and 71 ADF Trainees arrived to help stranded holiday makers in Mallacoota, Northern Victoria showed up to help get those people to safety.
And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
— Luke 21:29-33
As you can see, the Sycamore is like an old friend, and has been a significant part of my life the last 53 years. I am blessed to be graced by the meaning and purpose of this tree as a constant reminder of the grace of God in my life.
“I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs” Amos 7:14
As I write, a story about Sycamore Trees came on my playlist. I feel God would love me to share this with you haha wow!