Yesterday I was out on a walk with Reeses and I saw this tree as much more than silly. It's probably because I spent the morning studying the story of Joseph (you know the guy with the coat) and how he was thrown into a deep dark pit, beaten, sold into slavery, falsely accused, etc. This guy knew what it was like to hit rock bottom but he also knew what it was like to hold onto a dream and rise out of the pit.
So I started thinking about this tree. It grows out of the chimney of an old abandoned building near Burlington City's riverfront. It's been there for at least as long as we've lived here, but probably much longer. Think about how this tree started. As a seed eaten by a bird and then literally (pardon my french) crapped out into a deep, dark, narrow, hole with no sunlight, water or soil with which to grow. Everyone knows that seeds need light, water and and a fertile place to grow. Not this seed. I can just picture it there in the darkness of the chimney covered in #2. Yet something inside it willed it to grow. So it took the #2 in it's life because it's all that it had and it used that to start growing. It stretched and it grew and it clawed it's way up to the sunlight and held on for dear life. I wonder how many days it felt starved for water? How many times it nearly dried up before an unyielding flood of rain nearly knocked it back down? I wonder how many years it was before it's branches peaked out above the edge of the chimney? This tree has survived harsh winters and every year it returns. It rose up out of the pit and now it has the best seat in the house for every sunset along the river. And the sunsets are breathtaking.
So maybe we take a hint from this tree. Maybe we take our unfortunate circumstances and the #2 in our lives and we look up toward God instead of down in self pitty. Maybe we hang on tight and seek God with everything we have because it's all a part of the plan and one day we'll have the best seat in the house.
"Silly Tree" is not so silly anymore.
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