THE WEEPING WILLOW TREE

There was a weeping willow tree beside that old farm house outside of Groton, NY.  It was so beautiful in hot summers, when breezes would gently make it's long limbs move back and forth and cause the dead air to be stirred into new life.  On the outside of one of it's lower branches we hung a rope and placed an old tire where we could climb abroad and swing and sway climbing higher into the tree itself.

Years pasted by and we lived in Brooklyn where the big city smelled of dirty streets, urine in the corners and empty wine bottles scattered along the gutters.  It was one some week-ends that I would drive upstate NY back to the Elim Bible Institute were I was appointed Director of City Challenge to report to them how the work was doing.  So I would drive our old VW out of that dirty city and head up through the mountains, up route 17 until I came to Cortland NY.

I would pull into the drive way some time in the middle of the night; my grand parents knew I usually stopped there and when I went in the front door, I would make my way up the stairs and into the bedroom where that big weeping willow was right near a window.  I would slide open the window and I could feel the cool breeze flowing through the tree and blow softly into the room.  I would lay down and thankful that I'd made it that far.

I could hear my grand father move around down stairs and soon he was walking to the old barn to milk his five cows.  I would get out of bed and move downstairs and out the front door and into my VW.  It was always a wonderful feeling of being refreshed by stopping there; it would take about another hour before I finished my trip.

Going back, I would stop by that old farm again, and walk in and chat for awhile and drink some coffee with both of them.  Then off again down through the mountains, and finally through the Holland Tunnel and across the Brooklyn Bridge turning left on Atlantic Avenue and right on Dean Street.  The air was that same old dirty smell, but opening our downstairs apartment there would be waiting my family, early awaiting to hear all the news of my trip.

Someone said that "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn", and maybe there was a few scattered here and there.  Possibly someone had planted a weeping willow tree...it would be greatly appreciated there.

I've seen these type of trees planted in order to soak up the water from low spots, like on a golf course.  These trees grow fast and their long branches soon are full of leaves;  where there was mud, now it's dry and the only problem a golfer has is trying to hit their golf ball from underneath the low hanging branches.

It is written of Jesus; that He could give anyone His water of life, and they would never thirst again.  Also; He talked about Him being the tree and we are the branches, and if we drink of His water, we will near much fruit.  But to those branches that do not bear fruit, they are cut off and are taken away and burned in a fire.  "If My Word abides in you, you shall bear much fruit...."

We live deep in the woods of Virginia, this time of year (May) the tree in back of our home are full of their green foliage, birds build their nests and there the different colored eggs slowly begin to be break, and out comes a tiny little bird, these little birds will stay in that nest, while mother will fly away and catch insects, pick through the bottom of the trees, and dig up little worms, and in their beaks, fly back to their nest and feed each little mouth, which is opened wide for a morsel of what the female bird has brought back to them.

But there comes a time, when the mother bird will no longer feed her little ones, and one by one, she pushes them out of the nest, they don't like this at all, and they resist this, but they do fall out and flap their little wings and finally land on the ground and looking back up at the nest, they begin to hop around and do what their mothers was doing, pecking around and digging with their little feet, and sure enough, they start feeding themselves.  Of course they keep on growing and maturing, and soon they are able to flap their wings and fly up and land on a branch of a tree.

And so the cycle of life goes on, and to see all this is beautiful to watch, because God doesn't make anything that's not beautiful, even us, we may think we're not good looking when we look in a mirror, but we don't see what God sees, in His sight, everything He has made is very beautiful.