14th November 2025

Younger members of our extended family rather like the idea that we have our very own “whomping willow” tree in the garden. This tree in J. K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter books is sentient and might attack you! On a windy day, as the … well … willowy… branches dance around, it’s not hard to see why a vivid imagination could credit such a tree with more life to it than one might expect! It is quite mesmerising to watch the tree in motion – and at this time of year – to see its leaves gradually being released to spiral back to earth.

Willow trees are mentioned in the Bible, albeit an online search suggests these trees growing along the Euphrates river in ancient Babylon were a type of poplar, rather than the willows we know in the UK.

At Tyndale this week we’ve been focusing together on words from the Psalms in our prayers. Words from Psalm 137 were popularised in Boney M’s 1970’s “Rivers of Babylon” song. In this Psalm is the verse “There on the willows we hung our harps”. It expresses the pain of a people in exile and allows them to articulate their lament: “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land”. May we feel able to bring those things that cause us pain to God, and in expressing our lament, may we know God’s love encircling us and holding us, even in the midst of the hard times.

In the Bible the willow is also associated with water, life, abundance and being sustained by God. May we too know God’s abundance and sustenance.

Ruth Allen