DESCENDED FROM GREATNESS

E kore au e ngaro, he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea.

I will not be lost, I am a seed descended from Rangiātea.

Many years ago I chaired Te Kao Area School’s Board of Trustees and one of my fondest duties was supporting our rangatahi (youth) to spread their wings and fly.

 

In 1992 one of our students took part in the inaugural voyage of Te Aurere.  On the day of his departure, the school held a poroporoaki and I was called to attend at short notice.

I was conscious that the occasion required more than for me to simply turn up.  It required giving our rangatahi something to remind him of where he came from and who he was becoming in the greater voyage of his life.  But what that could be and how to find it at such short notice was beyond me.  So I prayed.

For those who know Te Wairua Tapu (the Holy Spirit), it will come as no surprise that I was led into the ngāhere (forest) where I found an unusually smooth piece of tangiwai (serpentine) that had no business being there other than to be found and given to our rangatahi.

Fast forward several weeks to the pōwhiri for our returning rangatahi who amazed us all with his mature telling of tales from the voyage, including a landing made at Ra’iātea from whence comes the whakatauki above.  There he was prompted to lay the tangiwai at the long-deserted but still sacred temple of Taputapuātea.

I know there were reconnections and awakenings that needed to be made that were helped by the symbol of that tangiwai as it journeyed from its source in Aotearoa to our earlier source in Ra’iātea. 

I know that this was just one occurrence of many occurrences in one life of many lives that happened for an unknown reason at the time, but that became known at the right time. 

I know we all unconsciously have such experiences every day and that they are reminders that all things work together for good to them that love God. 

These knowings are what God meant when he told the imprisoned Prophet Joseph Smith Jnr, “If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren;

… if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way;

… if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou … that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. 

The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?”

For Maori, these knowings are consciously summarised as follows:

Kei te mahi tahi ngā mea katoa i te pai mo te hunga e aroha ana ki te Atua.

All things work together for good to we who love God. 

He kakano tātou, i ruia mai i Rangiātea

We are seeds, descended from greatness.