Dreaming here on a porch in front of a house in Southwest Michigan looking at what we call trees. There are large ones and small ones all with different shapes. They have limbs growing out from the trunks some go up and some go down, each of these limbs have smaller limbs going every which away.
All of the smaller limbs have leaves up the limb and growing out the end. These leaves are in bunches of one through five spreading in all directions making a canapé that blocks out the light from the sunrays. As the wind blows all the leaves move at different directions like little hands waving good bye to who ever is watching. All the leaves are of a different shape some are large and fat others are small and skinny. Some have only one point and others have as many as six points. They are all green but of a different color green.
These trees are made up of roots in the ground and trunks with limbs growing out from it with leaves growing from the limbs. These trees are all different kinds. I see Elm, Walnut, Maple, Oak, Hickory, Poplar, and Sumac. They are all growing together in the wooded area, and within two to six feet of each other. They are so thick with leaves that you can see only small patches of different shapes of the Sun Rays hitting the grass and ground underneath, making the grass go from dark green to light green.
As the sun moves toward the west the sunspots on the grass is always changing to different shapes on the grass, or just going away to come back a different shape in a little while.
These trees are all different in trunk size and in how high they have grown. I see
one tree that has grown together at the base of the trunk. Each tree has different bark, on each tree. They are also different in height and trunk size.
How can they tell the difference when their roots are all mixed up down in the ground? How can these trees know what kind of leaves and bark to grow when they are so, close together? Their roots must be shaking hands with each other down under the ground. I wonder if they are happy being so close and all different, or are they like people trying to smash each other because one is bigger or taller or stronger then the one next to it. Can you imagine that maybe the trees are trying to teach people, and other living things, and animals something about nature that God had planned all along? Should we be living in peace and harmony if we live close together like the trees? No matter what shape or size or color we are.
Are we so much different from the trees because we can speak and hear, and they can’t do either, or can they. Do they love each other because they are different, or because God did place them where they are to show people the reason for his love?
Should it make any difference if we live alone, or far away from others, or close together like the trees? Shaking hands and loving each other like the trees with their limbs and roots running around, and through each other. While helping to support each other by holding each other up during all kinds of conditions or stress from nature.
Gods plan is to love your neighbor as you love yourself… trees do.
By William L Bradbury