The Right Direction

I have planted a few pecan trees on the farm.  Some of the trees already there are ancient.  Some say they have been growing for over a hundred years.  As I behold the size of their trunk and branches, I have no reason to doubt they have watched several generations pick up their precious fruit.  The trees I have planted have been there ten years or so and are making a few nuts on their young branches.  Planting a pecan tree by hand is harder work than most want to do.  Because of the needs of their root system, they require a very big and deep hole.   

What I did not know when I was sweating the hole out of the ground with a shovel was the satisfaction the new tree would bring.  Planting a tree is a gift to the future, to those who will come after me, and to the Creator with Whom I partner to make it grow.  I think often of a peach farmer over in Talbotton who was then about the age I am now planting a new peach orchard which was going to take seven years to produce peaches.  My youthful face must have showed my surprise that he would plant something which would likely take longer to produce than he had years to watch and so he said, "I want my grandchildren to know I was pointed in the right direction."  Obviously, I have not forgotten those words of wisdom uttered into existence nearly fifty years ago.  

Perhaps, the few young pecan trees among the ancient ones on the farm will speak such a word to my grandchildren.  I pray, too, that they will remember me not as a perfect man, but as one who was always pointed toward loving Jesus and serving Him.  I will not be remembered as those men of faith recorded in the book of Hebrews, but I pray I will be remembered as a man of faith, one who believed in Jesus and trusted Him for the unknown future.  I guess I am not so different from the old Talbot County peach farmer who wanted folks to know he was pointed in the right direction.