January News from James & Christel

They call it the Pica Pica, which might literally translate to the “itch-itch tree”. It definitely has earned its name! Recently as we were working together as a team to prepare our CARD center in Mayaguez for re-opening our in-person classes (which we hope to have coincide with the return to schools in March), we had an encounter with this legendary tropical tree. 

I was working in one of the classrooms when I began to feel my arms itching and burning. I looked over to see others on the team doing the same and asked them if they were feeling alright. “No!” came the answer, everyone was starting to itch like crazy. What was going on? Well, it turns out that outside of the building, during the long lockdowns, a Pica Pica, an “itch-itch tree” had grown up and was releasing its millions of miniscule needles onto the beautiful Puerto Rican January breeze and straight into our skin. 

Trying to remove the tree and its wickedly dangerous fruits was a challenge to say the least, the closer we came to the tree the more the invisible airborne needles would fend us off. Moving the fruits in the least way would be met with vengeance; and we needed to clip them from afar one at a time in a way that could safely capture the needles in a bag or drop them over a cliff. We sprayed the tree with poison, and next plan to chop it down and burn the roots. 

Our sin is a lot like that Pica Pica tree, while you aren’t looking it quietly grows and latches on to everything that it can, then does all it can to stop you from finding it and rooting it out. Getting close to it requires a willingness to suffer its barbs and deal with it, to destroy it once and for all. Until it has been dealt with however, it makes all of the space around it unusable and unpleasant. It takes ownership of the very air around it. 

The good news of the Gospel that we proclaim is that Jesus has come to deal with this horrible and dominating oppressor that we don’t dare to approach. Jesus takes the barbs upon His own skin, and by His death on the ultimate cursed tree, sets us free from this oppressive ruler and clears the air and retakes the territory for us. The chaos surrounding us in these recent days has been a lot like that tree, the consequences of sin seem to get into every nook and cranny of our society and family and lives, ruining everything they touch. By the end of the day, I learned to truly hate the Pica Pica tree, and days later I still find areas of my skin that must have these needles still lodged in them. 

I imagine that lately you have come to hate your sin, and the sin of the world more and more as well as you see it take over everything it touches and make it untouchable and unapproachable. Perhaps the Pica Pica was one of those first weeds that came in to curse the ground after the fall, but our Lord is a gardener who is equal to the task!  If you have the equivalent of a Pica Pica tree growing somewhere in your own life, take care to not let it grow too large, and most importantly, bring it to the attention of your Savior, who has taken all sin upon Himself. He is merciful, even when our sin is not. This is good news for all people, and what you have sent us to Puerto Rico to proclaim!

Together, let us rejoice and share the good news of Jesus, the new Adam who keeps the garden better than we could ever imagine!