Click Map for Details


Flag Counter

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Towering Trees and Undergrowth

What plant best describes you now: Towering oak? Weeping willow? Tumbleweed? Crab apple tree? Explain. (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1516).


You may think this is odd but when I was a young man in 1969, I was in federal prison.  I remember distinctly one fine day toying with the idea of being something of a tree of life with green leaves and branches and with birds singing among them. Somehow I thought this would be the ultimate ambition that I could possibly have for my life. In many ways I still think this is a desirable ambition for it is a picture of abundance, of life, of generosity, and friendship.

Now this is the ideal. What is the reality? Well some mornings there's no question but I'm a crab apple tree. On bad days I'm just a weed. But in truth I see myself on average as a vernal yet rather nondescript and volunteer shrub in the backyard-- neither towering nor scrawny, just vaguely somewhere in between.  Sparrows visit me daily. Next door is a tall oak where mockingbirds reside.  I am very much content and blessed with rain and sunshine and the chirp of sparrows.....and miss not at all the dark and mystic songs of nightingales. 



Print Page