C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce (quoted in Lints' Uncommon Unity):

Life is not like a river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase across time.

There’s an apologetic for Protestantism buried within that quote, for the person skilled enough to unearth it. Bavinck has similar things to say in some of his works. At some point I’d love to put them (and others) in conversation on this topic.