My INSPIRATION TREE is in blossom. 🌳 Just look at that crabapple — blooming its little heart out!
You are probably thinking, “SO WHAT — that’s what they do in the Spring!”
Well — take a closer look and zoom in on the second picture showing the tree from a better angle. Check out the trunk…
Then look at the third picture which shows you an even closer view. The tree looks totally diseased — completely hollow —rotten to the core! If you ONLY looked at that, you would think it was just about dead. But just look at all those leaves and flowers!!!
A dozen years ago a small hole appeared and every year it has grown larger… Winter snows weigh down its branches, windstorms whip them to and fro… Its insides are turning to sawdust… Several branches have fallen off. Our arborist said, “Cut it down!”
NOT ON YOUR LIFE!! This tree continues to inspire me every single day. It stands tall, deeply rooted and reaching for the sky, proclaiming LIFE! - - - DESPITE the fact that it clearly has issues.
Bees love its Spring blooms, Baltimore orioles love to visit it, and the deer enjoy the crabapples in late summer. Almost in anticipation of the day when it topples, new shoots are sprouting from the bottom of the trunk which could eventually grow a new little tree.
God speaks to me every day through this tree, whispering — “Keep blooming where you are planted… Sink your roots deep into the ‘soil’ of my LOVE… Build on your strengths … Concentrate NOT on what you DON’T have and focus on what you DO — Then you will continue to thrive — no matter what — and remember, I AM WITH YOU.”
Words from one of our favorite choir anthems (click here to listen) come to mind:
“May your roots go deep into the soil of God’s marvelous Love
And may you be able to feel and understand, as all God‘s children should,
How long, how wide, how deep and how high Christ’s love truly is…
And so, at last — you will be filled up — with God’s Own Self…”
Lovingly, LINDA