Shelter

The people of the forest suffered too, and some of them traveled long distances to find sheltered grounds. All was silent in the land that winter had conquered.

One day God, the great creator of all things, looked down on the vast frozen forest and thought, “How can I help my people to overcome this bitter season? I will ask my creatures if one of them could help to sweeten the year.”

The Eagle

So he asked the eagle, who was soaring through the frigid air, “Can you sweeten the bitter winter?”

“I give my feathers to the people for their headdress, but there is no sweetness in me to give.”

Then God asked the deer, who was walking quietly through the forest, “Can you help to sweeten the bitter winter?” “I give my coat to the people for their clothing and my flesh for food. But I must eat these sharp-tasting cedar boughs to survive, and so there is no sweetness in me.”

God even asked the great sun in the sky, “Can you move closer to the earth and help relieve this bitter season?” The sun replied, “O God, you have set me on my course to follow a high arc in summer and a low arc in winter, and I dare not move closer or I might char the earth like blackened firewood.”

And so the land stood, covered with snow, waiting for something to happen.

A Sapling

Then God looked around, and he saw a sapling sticking up through the snow. God asked the little tree “Will you help sweeten this bitter winter and bring joy to the people’s hearts?”
“I will try since you ask me,” said the little tree, “But how can I do this? I am rooted in one place and I grow slowly upon rock and soil.”

A Golden Force

“I will give you a gift,” said God. “Each summer I will make your leaves to catch the sun’s power, and they will send its golden force deep into the heart of your being. You will store this light in your roots. Then every spring, when all is still cold and snowy and frozen, I will cause my sun to return and call forth this sap to rise up.”

And so it came to be.

The little sapling grew and grew and became a great tree. Each summer its leaves captured the golden promise of the sun, and it stored this treasure deep in its roots. Then each spring the sap rose to greet its source.

But there was no one to harvest this great gift.

God asked the squirrel if he could chew a hole to get the sap, but the squirrel could not, for the bark was too thick and strong.

Then God asked the beaver if it could cut the tree for its sweet harvest. “I prefer the poplar tree or the willow,” said the beaver. “This tree with its hard bark and wood would dull my teeth!”

Then God turned to the people and asked them, “Would you like to have a treat?”
“Go to the maple tree. Take your stone blade and cut the bark. Cut it not too deep and with the angle of the sun’s rays in the spring or of the water flowing down the hill, and catch the sap in a wooden bowl.

“Then in the way that you boil water, add a rock heated red hot in the fire. Boil the sap and concentrate it. Then let it cool and taste it.”

The people did this. The golden brown syrup danced on their tongues and brought sweetness to their hearts. And it filled their bellies with the sun’s power. A new food of surpassing quality had come into their lives.

The people saved some of it and the season of bitter cold was sweetened with a new joy.
Many moons and many seasons passed.

Then one day a new people came to the land of Kanata. They came across the great sea, sailing in their mighty canoes with white wings. These new people came to explore, to trade for the beaver skin, to fell the mighty pine, and to net the fish. And they brought with them their faith in Jesus Christ.

They, too, found the winters bitter. Many were sad and longed for their homes. Some fell ill and died.

Would the long, cold winter defeat them? Would someone help them? They waited and prayed and hoped.

A Gift

Then one spring day as the sun was beginning to warm the frozen land, a few of the people of the forest brought a gift to the new people who did not know the secret that had been given to the little sapling.

“Look. Take and eat. This gift will dance on your tongues. It will fill your bellies with the sun’s power. It will bring sweetness to your hearts.”

The people took the gift and tasted it. It was true! The golden brown gift, which we call maple syrup today, was sweet like honey, but had a wonderful taste of its own.

“What gift can we give you in return?” they asked.

Strong and Sweet

“Our gift to you is strong and sweet,” the people said, “but it is eaten too quickly. And we work very hard for it each spring. We have been told that you have been given a food from God, a food that you can eat and never be hungry again. Tell us about this food that your God has given you.”

God looked at all this and smiled. Now both peoples would eat a food that brought sweetness and the Bread that would give them God himself.

God thanked the sugar maple tree and blessed it. He commanded it to multiply and spread throughout the forest so that, for all time, his peoples could have sweetness in the bitter winter.

The maple tree was so filled with joy that to this day, every year when autumn comes to eastern Canada, its leaves color the land with gold and flame to show the secret and the treasure stored in its heart.

The author is the manager of our farm.