The Uprooted Mapou

Their gods are like helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field! They cannot speak, and they need to be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of such gods, for they can neither harm you nor do you any good.

Jeremiah 10:5 (NTL)

I remember the time when I was a child and my mother would go to visit my grandmother. I loved going to her house, for she always prepared delicious and extraordinary meals for us. There was, however, one thing—something I did not understand—the reason for which I burned to know. Every evening, she would go to the foot of a *Mapou* tree located behind the house to leave food offerings and recite prayers. She would spend hours there, performing all sorts of rituals. She spoke ceaselessly to someone who never answered her. As a child, I took this for sheer madness.

A year later, when I visited her again with my mother, the *Mapou* had vanished. It had been uprooted to make way for a chicken coop. Nevertheless, my grandmother continued to leave food at the exact spot where the tree had once stood. I asked her why she persisted in leaving food there, and she replied that one must show respect to the gods. My next question nearly earned me a spanking: "How can a god be uprooted from his throne to yield his place to chickens?" My grandmother lived in fear that the god of the *Mapou* would punish her if she ceased leaving food at the place where he had once resided.

But what harm could possibly come to her from a tree—a thing incapable of speech, incapable of movement, and which had not even been able to defend its own ground? As the Bible tells us, God shares His glory with no one else. Consequently, harboring fear toward a tree amounts to usurping a portion of God's glory; for He is the Only One before whom we should stand in reverence—for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do not let yourselves be deceived by those who claim that idols are gods capable of coming to your aid; for this is false—since, just like this *Mapou*, they will one day be uprooted and consumed by fire.

May the grace and peace of God be with you.