What’s Hid Beneath the Bones of This Great Tree: An Epic Journey

By Chris Erdman

This Great Tree weaves thirty poetic meditations and full-color works of art into a lyrical tale of healing, resiliency, and transformation. The story gathers us into a world animated by mystery--trees feel, forests speak, and deep caverns hold secrets. Together, they guide us into the depths of personal experience and struggle, inviting us into a full and flourishing life. The tale arises from the author's own experience of tragedy, loss, and recovery. A classic journey of the soul, reimagined for our times, What's Hid Beneath the Bones of This Great Tree bears profound psychological and spiritual insights for personal healing and growth as well as for the ways human beings can cultivate a more benevolent and soulful presence on the Earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Sep 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666709667

Chris Erdman

Chris Neufeld-Erdman (DMin, Columbia Theological Seminary) was formerly the pastor of University Presbyterian Church, Fresno, California. He is now the pastor of Davis Community Church, in Davis, California. He is the author of several books, including Ordinary Preacher/Extraordinary Gospel: A Daily Guide for Wise, Empowered Preachers (2014).

Book preview

part one | awaken

a voice speaks —

Somewhere deep inside the Earth, something familiar lives. 

I feel it in my bones. 

I heard a sigh just now—a gasp that’s rising from the Earth beneath my feet, as if some sad and hidden thing tried desperately to let itself be heard. A wisp of memory flits through my brain, then flees and leaves a hint of what it tried to say. I taste the color blue; midnight in its hue and bitter in my mouth. Suddenly I’m cold, and sad, a sorrow deep and unexplained. This sadness is a heavy weight; it pulls me down, my cheek pressed to the ground in grief I neither want nor understand. 

The stars have fallen from the sky. The Earth’s in disarray. The gods are dead or fled before this travesty.

But something living’s hidden deep among the bones of this Great Tree.

the man speaks —

I find myself out on a broad but sterile