Angel Tree
Mary’s Monday Morning Musings to Quilt Encouragement
Angel Tree
The difficulty of finding a parking place hinted that this wasn’t just a well advertised pretty tree, but a sight worthy of going out our way to enjoy. The Live Oak tree, probably at least four hundred years old, was huge. It’s immense branches spread around the enormous trunk. One branch alone boasted an eleven foot circumference. You’ve heard the expression, “if only a tree could talk.” If this magnificent tree could talk, it would tell of the entire history of the United States perhaps from the time the first people from Europe settled here although that settlement wasn’t in the Charleston area. Nevertheless it could it tell the narrative of the indigenous people living in the area before Europeans came to these shores. We circled the tree, looking at its heavy branches propped up by wood in some places and extending vast distances from the trunk. Large knurly knots graced some limbs. Notices informed us that it could live many more years if people don’t abuse it. Signs all around the tree asked people not to step or sit on any of the branches, some of which nearly reached the ground; yet several people sat or stepped, ignoring the requests posted at intervals around the tree. A group of state arborists periodically ponder how best to preserve this treasure.
The sheltering tree inspired thoughts of its creator. If God nurtured the existence and preservation of this lovely, enormous tree which doesn’t think, talk or move from place to place, how much care and interest He must have in his human creations who accomplish all three of those feats. While we are much smaller in size, He empowers our brains to think large and lovely thoughts that grace our world as well as this tree graced the land it stood on. While we don’t have signs posted on us not to damage us by standing or sitting on us, we can be harmed by the actions and words of others. Let’s regard every person we encounter as a creation to treat with the same respect this tree needed to continue to flourish. When we see knots in people’s thoughts or actions, let’s ask God for revelation of what kind of storm or insects caused the knots and ask how to help and not harm God’s creation.
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