There’s a huge tree on our property at home that has grown quite tall. Its limbs have broken from time to time, and it needed a trim. So we asked a tree-cutting company to take care of it for us. Two men came with a crane. Our whole family was interested to see how they would go about cutting some of the tree’s crown away while leaving other parts of it intact. We waited and waited, but they weren’t starting.

Soon a third man came, and a small ceremony took place outside our window. All three men squatted down in a semi-circle around the base of the tree, placing their hands together in a praying position. They sat there like that for several minutes. Then one man took a large bottle of rice wine and sprinkled it around the tree. Another man took a handful of salt and scattered it on the opposite side of the tree.

Foreigners that we are, we can speculate what they were doing. The Shinto religion elevates nature as objects with feelings, abilities, and perhaps spirits. I believe these men were apologizing for the fact that they were about to cut off some of this tree’s limbs. Also, they were probably thanking the tree for the shade it had offered up until that time.

It’s sad for us Christians to watch this, especially since most Japanese don’t really believe there’s anything to religion of any kind. The government wants to declare that Shintoism shouldn’t be considered a religion but a national tradition. But many workers refuse to start work unless these special rites are completed. Superstition plays a part in Japanese people’s day-to-day lives. Please pray that Japanese people would worship the Creator of the trees.