Lesson From The Crabapple Tree

I guess this can be called a For-The-Record post. Likely of little interest to anyone who hasn't lived here.

Ummm… which is actually true of a lot of posts...

so...

 

 Anyway.

 

Isn't this tree beautiful? I don't know how old it is. It was here when Dad & I got married 27 years ago. It was big and beautiful already then. So it's a big beautiful tree, and so what? Well, the interesting part isn't this traditional lovely crabapple-tree-in-spring look. The for-the-record part is

 

This.

This is the view from the house.
 

Where all sorts of ladders and platforms and supports are visible, and if you have really good eyes you can even see some of the hundreds of nails.
 

I suppose Levi and Jesse started this project maybe 15?20 years ago, and even then we weren't (still aren't!) aiming for the Yard Beautiful award. At last count I think there were seven different platform levels, each one higher than the previous one, and all accessible by a complicated maze of ladders and bridges. And lots and lots of nails. And many broken branches in the pursuit of higher grounds. I mean levels.

 

 

So.

 

The amazing thing about this old tree is not its gorgeous blooms year after year. The amazing thing about this old tree is its gorgeous blooms in spite of all the damage inflicted upon it year after year.

 

That's resilience for sure.

 

And a lesson for me - to keep blooming amidst all the nails and boards thrown my way.

Not that I have that many, you know, because after all this is America where we are free and never go hungry, but still, satan is alive and well and like a roaring lion, and he delights in hammering us with nails, the rustier the better, and whacking us with random boards that we don't expect, and breaking a few branches now and then.

 

He'll do anything to keep us down. Anything to dim the beauty God created us to share. Anything to keep us from blooming.

 

Well, I'm encouraged by our old crabapple tree. I'm going to bloom in spite of the nails!

 

He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Isaiah 27:6