Tree

“I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree.”  This poem by James Kilmer, which I will print later in this post, was written in 1913, who was a well-known poet.

Do you remember climbing trees when you were younger?  What was so attractive as the desire to climb our neighborhood tree, even if it meant some scraped knees?  Maybe it was simply the challenge of our youth or maybe, being so small, we wanted to get a better view of the world.  I don’t recall any tree-climbing episodes in my own childhood, but as an adult, now that’s a different story.

Every year, as the weather turned cooler in the Autumn, my husband and I made our annual drive to some local orchards to pick apples.  On a crisp Fall Day, just driving the curvy roads through the hills of Pennsylvania towards our destination, was a anticipated adventure every year.  Once we arrived at the orchard, we would pick up the empty baskets provided and drive our truck back past the hundreds of apple trees, which held all different varieties.  There was not a lot of low hanging fruit, so we would secure one of the available ladders and take turns climbing up higher to get a better view of where the best apples were  (plus taking a couple of samples along the way). 

It was always a day full of fun, giving us a better view of the importance of just being together.  This simple, but meaningful, story came to mind from a daily reflection which reads, “As a child, you learned the story of Zacchaeus – a small-framed tax collector, who climbs a tree so that he can see Jesus above the crowd.”  The reflection continues by asking the readers, “How can your life be the tree from which someone gets a better view?  How do you live differently so that others can see Jesus in you?”  Two powerful questions that deserve our time to reflect upon and act, don’t you think?

I know that I want others to see the Jesus in me, but how do I encourage them to make the climb to get a better view?  Or, if others make the choice to stay on level ground, how do we show that they’re missing a much better view.  Even when we may be tired and weary, if you and I take the chance to wrap our arms around that tree and make the climb, we won’t be disappointed.  Let us, this week, appreciate this gift of nature, a thing of beauty, even in the dead of winter, that God created for us.  You and I are also like trees that He designed so those around us can get a better view and witness our own spiritual beauty in any season.

“A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.  He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.  So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.”  Luke 19:1-4