A Tree Blessing

It looked like half a tree on the ground.  A huge pecan limb came crashing to the ground the other night in the darkness and left us in the darkness for several hours.  Before it was cut up and hauled off, I measured it by stepping it off.  Over sixty feet of tree with all the pecans it would have made were laying on the ground.  It was one of the older trees on the farm.  Most folks guess it to be as old as the old farm house which dates back to the early 1900's.  Watching it go made me think of all the folks it has blessed.

 

It has blessed generation after generation with pecans to eat and sell.  It has provided shade on hot summer days for those who toiled in the fields next to it.  Squirrels nested in it and birds made it their home.  I have seen an old hoot owl perched on one of its limbs watching the chickens who walked around the chicken yard.  It has brought me and others food and pleasure through the years of its life.  And even though a big chunk of it is gone, a larger portion still stands with promises of more blessings to come.

 

A tree planted so long ago has been such a blessing to so many for so long.  I can understand why some from other traditions would look at such a tree and thank it for being such a blessing.  The longer I live under the shadow of these long livers and long givers the more I, too, want to thank the trees for being such a blessing.  But, what they really call me to do is to thank God for this incredible creation which He has put all around me and for the way it continues to bless me as it has the many who have lived here ever so briefly in this place on the earth.