Spring has finally reached Illinois. And trust me, this year we had our doubts.
If you are fortunate enough to live outside the Midwest, kindly indulge my excessive jubilation over the sight of leaves on trees. While you may have been enjoying them for weeks or months now, where we go camping, many of the trees are still only budding.
As I pondered their green grandeur, I was struck by the potential of just one tree. Consider this. One single tree provides shade that means comfort for picnics…and lower air conditioning bills at home.
A tree provides food. Caterpillars and other critters lunch and munch on every tree, while armies of ants trek up and down the trunk trafficking food.
A tree provides homes for animals like birds, squirrels and raccoons.
Then there's the beauty of a tree…the sound of a tree, whether the rustle of leaves, or the whisper of a pine bough swish.
A tree provides a wind barrier a sound barrier, and natural privacy. We haven't discussed lumber production. Or paper. Or, in the case of Maple trees, syrup. Haven't mentioned apples and peaches and pears and almonds and walnuts or pine cones (with help from a seven year old named Joslynn, I collect them).
And did I mention an average tree absorbs about 48 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, while creating about 260 pounds of oxygen each year?
Now…put all of those factoids into perspective as you read Psalm One's description of a godly woman or man whose delight is in the Law of the Lord:
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leave does not whither. Whatever he does prospers.”
Want to provide shade, comfort, protection and life for others? God says,
“Be like a tree.
Delight in Me.”