The Tree

There is a tree on our 180 acres in Hugo, Oklahoma. A cedar tree which Oklahoma has an abundance of. My husband keeps an immaculate place mowing, trimming and picking up endless fallen branches. He was looking across the pasture one day and saw this scraggly tree and said “I am going cut that tree down!” I looked out the window and said “It’s alive, leave it alone.” And so he did. The tree has struggled, a harsh winter broke many of it’s branches. It is forked into looking like two trees. Cedars trees don’t normally fork. It has been plagued by bag worms which my husband has sprayed to kill. I have looked at trees and wondered why aren’t they perfectly shaped? What in their life has caused them to lean one way, twist or die. My mother told me when I brought home a painting of a dead tree from school how she never thought a dead tree could be beautiful until she saw it painted. I think trees are like people, God didn’t make us perfect. Things in life happen to us that make us look or act the way we do. Some bad, some good. If we live for Him, God, He can take those events and care for them. Pruning and shaping our hearts to cope and recover.

“And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.””
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21:5‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/100/rev.21.5.NASB1995

The tree I am speaking of is the tree which from behind Jesus spoke to me. A year later I was looking out across the pasture and said “Honey, have you looked at “The Cedar Tree” lately?” Which he said no, I said I have never seen it so green or so full. Even the trunk is like it’s been on steroids (no fertilizer has been given). Birds of many species have made their home in it. “It’s almost as if being in the presence of God it has been blessed!”