Trees

@Keeson This is awesome. Helped me a lot. Just wanted to say thanks :)

@Keeson this is a truly amazing interpretation of what you think trees means, and I agree with your theory

@Keeson one more thing that I think is important to note is that it seems like Tyler is not faulting God so much as he is imploring him. He knows where God is but he can't seem to find him. He is asking God to come to him so he can know him better and even just say hello. I feel like Tyler is being very picky with words and leaving the door open to say something like this: God is there and maybe he's trying to help Tyler find a way through the trees, he CAN see him after all. But maybe gods working in a different way than what Tyler is looking for at the moment.

@Keeson once i learned Tyler was raised a Christian, this song became pretty clear. you summed it up well. Prior to that, I thought he was calling the "person" in the trees a coward, but it's clear now he's the one standing as a coward. Any believer struggles with doubt. I've been there and prayed and prayed and prayed, hoping, begging to SEE Him, to hear Him. Prayer alone has never sufficed. It isn't until I'm in prayer AND reading the bible, thats where He is. He is the Word. A find my peace there with him.

@Keeson I agree with everything you said, but let me add just one little alternate theory to it. I think maybe he DOES feel God's presence at one point. I think when he says, "I can feel my death. I can feel your breath," he is actually communing with God.<br /> <br /> To explain:<br /> <br /> 1) "I can feel my death." <br /> <br /> In Christianity, we are called to "die" to ourselves and instead be filled with Christ. Galatians 2:20 describes it this way: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Jesus himself said, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it." Romans 6:8 says, "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." There are many, many more verses that reference laying aside your old life, and filling yourself instead with God.<br /> <br /> I believe that in "Trees," when Tyler is standing there alone in the silence, his arms outstretched, calling out to God, he can feel himself "dying to himself." That's why he says, "I can feel my death."<br /> <br /> 2) "I can feel your breath." <br /> <br /> God is often referred to in the Bible as "breath." Job 33:4 makes it clear: "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." <br /> <br /> I believe that in "Trees," when Tyler says "I can feel your breath," he is feeling the presence of God.<br /> <br /> And if you follow that line of reasoning, the "Hello"s that follow the death/breath line are just that — a "HELLO!" to God. :) I think it fits, because Tyler doesn't scream them like he's angry or desperate, particularly if you see him perform this in concert — he screams them as a celebration! Hello!<br /> <br /> Just an alternate theory on what that part of the song means!<br /> <br />

@Moonbeam86 wow that really made me think, and that's a really awesome take on the song!! I hadn't thought of it that way before. Thanks for the response :) <br /> <br /> I really like your interpretation of the line, "I can feel my death". This is because the next line supports your point. "I want to know you." This would be the reason why he's dying to his own life. To be closer to God. I wouldn't say that Tyler exactly feels close to God yet. Hence the future tense. Maybe God has impacted his life in someway, driving him to desire an even closer bond.<br /> <br /> I say that because of the line you mentioned, "I can fell your breath." Maybe what he means by this is that God is working in his life. Breath is invisible right? Maybe Tyler is referring to God working in his life invisibly. Another cool point that I just thought of; our breath is visible in cold weather, and a lot of people come closer to God and notice his work in their lives during the hard times. The "cold" times. Just thought that was interesting. Maybe that's why he can feel God's breath at this moment in the song. <br /> <br /> Having taken those two points into consideration: what I take away from this is that Tyler has been going through very difficult times in his life. During these times however, he notices the impact of God on his life, and desires a closer relationship with Him. He starts to turn over a new leaf, putting more value in his faith. Maybe this IS his conversion story, his return to faith. Thought I would add on to your statement. Thanks again for your added opinion :)

@Keeson i'm listening to this song while reading this and i was seriously tearing up

@Keeson @Keeson Hey - I thought of another theory related to the symbolic meaning of “trees.” I came upon the idea when I was listening to “Forest.” <br /> <br /> Ok so the lyrics in “Forest” say:<br /> <br /> “Down in the Forest we’ll sing a chorus, one that everybody knows<br /> Hands held higher, we’ll be on fire, singing songs that nobody wrote.”<br /> <br /> Here’s my thinking:<br /> <br /> 1) Chorus is another term for worship song.<br /> 2) Tyler spent many years as a worship leader for his church (New Albany Church/Five 14).<br /> 3) The “hands held higher, we’ll be on fire” seems like it refers to people reaching up as they sing a worship song (a chorus).<br /> 4) Following this line of thinking, all the arms raised up during worship would look like a forest.<br /> 5) So the “forest” in the song probably symbolizes a big group of people raising their arms in worship.<br /> <br /> Ok, so if Tyler’s “forest” is a group of people worshipping, I realized maybe “Trees” is referring to the same thing?<br /> <br /> As we said before, this song is a prayer someone is saying as they stand silently. However, I think the “trees” means the person is standing silently within a group of people in the midst of worship. The person is surrounded by “trees,” but he is not singing. He’s standing silently, cowardly not singing, but he wants to hear from God. His mind and soul are reaching out for God. And he feels God’s breath, and he feels his own death as God fills him — all in the midst of worship.<br /> <br /> It makes sense because why would standing silently in ACTUAL trees be cowardly? It wouldn’t. However, standing in the midst of people worshipping but being too shy to sing (or maybe even too shy to raise your hands) would be kind of cowardly.<br /> <br /> And this song was written during Tyler’s time as a worship leader.<br /> <br /> So yeah...this might be another symbolic meaning of “Trees.”

@Keeson I definitely agree with that

@Keeson Hate to come back and reply yet again, but there was a song released recently on Youtube that Tyler wrote for "No Phun Intended." There's a line where the lyrics say:<br /> <br /> "Have you ever heard the trees singing their song?"<br /> <br /> This, combined with "Forest" and the trees mentioned in "Ode to Sleep" (and the "trees wave their arms") makes me really think that what I said above is true ^ that "Trees" is from the point of view of someone in the midst of people singing and raising their hands in worship.

I agree. I myself have all the signs for having social anxiety but haven't been tested yet. Feeling like your always being watched and judged whenever you go, never knowing what to say when anyone talks to me, often causing me to either say nothing at all or saying very little and just feeling so under pressure and people never noticing me in class because I never say a word, to be honest I'm just afraid of what people will think of me. This song describes me so perfectly and that's why I love it <3

I agree so much with this, like this is me

Wow. You know your stuff. I just figured he was talking about wanting more of God, and not being able to find him. Your relation to the story of zacchaeus has me enjoying the song even more. I never would have thought of comparing the two, but you did and I give you props. I wonder if Tyler had that story in mind when he wrote it? Great minds think alike.

@davidbamford props for referencing Zacchaeus, but for this song I'm not seeing it. Especially since he starts off saying he knows that he is standing in the trees silently. With Zacchaeus, Jesus was never in the tree and Jesus spoke to him and called him down. This song seems more like a struggle with faith and in your darkest hours, when you're sick of falling into the same sinful patterns, all you want is to hear and know God and find peace, but you're struggle to find it.

@davidbamford I used to listen to this song and thought it was about him feel in alone , but I got saved , all praise to God. . But I re listened to this song and thought zaccheaus as well , and how he is like zaccheaus and his audience is like him as well because they want to know God so badly that they are in a tree try it to see Him and know Him but like zaccheaus they think that they must attain to moral standard or be good enough to know God therefore they stay cowardly in their tree . Until God comes to them . Which I think in the song is represented by the last Long HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO . total zaccheaus reference

<br /> @EhevuTov <br /> Nailed it...I was going to write exactly this but you've already done it.

I also forgot to add that he also says, "I want to know you, I want to see, I want to say hello!" In this way he is saying he wants to know himself better and know his problems. When he wrote this he probably didn't know where his future lead and he probably had a lot of life problems. He wants to be able to know what he wants so he can go ahead and get it before his chance goes away

@ETtomboy I like what you wrote.