Daily Word of Grace # 225 (April 22, 2021)
An often overlooked gem on U2’s masterpiece 1987 album The Joshua Tree is the song “One Tree Hill”, written for a New Zealander named Greg Carroll who met the band in 1984. They all became great friends and Greg became a roadie for the band on their worldwide concert tours. Greg died in a motorcycle accident and in his memory Bono later wrote “One Tree Hill”, based on the volcano peak in Auckland, New Zealand Greg had taken the band to visit. Bono sings, “The moon is up over one tree hill. We see the sun go down in your eyes. You run like a river runs to the sea. And in the world, a heart of darkness, a fire zone, where poets speak their heart then bleed for it. Jara sang, his song a weapon in the hands of one, though his blood still cries from the ground. It runs like a river runs to the sea. It runs like a river to the sea.” (Jara refers to Victor Jara, the Chilean poet and political activist tortured and killed in 1973). The final verse is replete with hope: “I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky, and the moon has turned red over one tree hill.” Like Jara, Jesus also spoke from his heart and then bled for it—and because of the most important “one tree hill” of all, Calvary, God assures us that although we indeed live “in the world, a heart of darkness, a fire zone” Jesus’ forgiving, redeeming, healing blood “still cries from the ground” and we will indeed see again our loved ones who have died “when the stars fall from the sky, and the moon has turned red over one tree hill.”
Love and Prayers,
Dave