When I got to my room, I looked out the window and my first impression was that I have a tree blocking my view. Upon reflection over the next couple days, I understood the tree was the view I was supposed to see.
A tree can appear to be strong and healthy, but as you admire it and really look at it, you notice, it is not perfect, just like people.
I stared at a broken branch. It appears that it got some disease and died off, while the rest of the tree survives. I look at that branch that might be a bad relationship in our lives and if it does not break apart from the tree, it could infect the whole tree. A bad relationship could do the same to us.
I witnessed birds flying to the tree to get nourishment and shelter. This is like those we are sent to protect and support. This could be our family, friends, or strangers. Everyone needs a safe haven to come to and we, as God's servants on earth, should provide that to the people we meet.
Finally, some of the branches go in all sorts of directions. From a distance, the tree looks like it is growing in perfect symmetry yet it doesn't. It has branches that decide to shoot up versus out or encounter a growth spurt. We also don't grow in the perfectly. We make bad decisions and have to change path. We might have our growth get stunted for a bit as we loose our path, but we have that much more growth when we focus back on God.
Life is a journey and each season brings good and bad events to our lives. Just remember that just as a tree, we are always growing and the bad parts should be discarded and allow the good to flourish.
