Trees provide more than just shade

First the frost of last year took six trees and the heat now is working on some more. I love trees. What would we do without them? I love the shade they give. Think of all the things they bring like fruit, wood, furniture and buildings. God has made you and me, even animals what we need to survive.

We were driving to Clovis one day and I saw a deer eating leaves off a tree. "No you didn't see that," my husband said. "Even if you did a deer wouldn't be out in this heat." So I held my ground. "Okay" he said, "I'll turn around and go look at that tree back there and you won't see a deer."

Guess what? I won big time!

One Christmas my family wrote notes and tied them on our tree. Our youngest son is a football fan. He wrote, "Life is a touchdown." By the way, I love Christmas trees too! About August, our sons call and say, "Have you put up the Christmas tree yet?

Some trees won't give up. I accidentally watered a stump and a green stem has popped out and it is growing again. I call that determination. There is a lesson right there.

It takes a long time for trees to grow and that's why I hate to see a tree die. So I am starting again. I'm not going to quit. I'm planting trees again. I like to see them "clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:12)

In Psalm 1:3 God compares our obedience and righteousness like a tree "... He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." (NIV)

When I see trees with problems I think of people. It's hard to keep the faith sometimes but we must because this life is not forever. Our hope is the eternal home.

Troubles come and troubles go but with Jesus I endure. This scripture states what we should do: "Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall" (Psalm 55:22, NIV).

I read that scripture and repent knowing burdens bring peace.

In the beginning Satan persuaded Eve and Adam to sin. "Then the Lord said, Now that the man has become as we are, knowing good from bad, what if he eats the fruit of the Tree of Life and lives forever? Thus God expelled him, and placed mighty angels at the east of the garden of Eden, with a flaming sword to guard the entrance to the Tree of Life." (Genesis 3:22-24, TLB).

God has made a way:

At the end it is finished in Revelation 22: "And he pointed out to me a river of pure Water of Life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb, coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew Trees of Life..." (TLB)

That must be why I love trees.

It's the "Tree of Life!"

Portales resident Joan Clayton is a retired teacher and published author. Her e-mail address is:

[email protected]