Our Blossoming Cherry Tree

I have this beautiful tree in front of my house. Every spring it blooms these huge purplypink bloom clusters that are just lovely to look at and transforms this rather ordinary tree into a masterpiece! We have had this tree for many many years, in fact, it is one of the first things we ever planted in this yard when we moved onto this property over 24 years ago. John and I love this tree, it isn't huge, it isn't meant to be huge, but it is has a lot of sentimental value...to be fair, most of the shrubs/trees DO have some kind of memory attached to them...like the golden chain tree we got from Tom Kuehlwein (same as the cherry tree), the Japanese maple I bought for John as a Fathers day present and arrived in the "mail" as a stick, it is now thriving with this big thick trunk and funky twisted branches, or the silver maple tree out front that came from a tiny shoot that we dug up from Gary and Elsies yard, not to mention the Hydrangeas we gleaned from that very same yard. Oh, and theres the Noble Fir that Mike gave John, the lilac I got from my mom to replace the one John hit with a tree, which thrived while the one she gave me has always struggled, and the rose bush I got on a "safari" to the Norton place down the road from where I grew up one sunny afternoon when some of us were bored and the Norton house still stood as an eerie reminder of once being a sanctuary for a passel of kids. Then there is my personal favorite, the one that means the world to me, not because it is older or prettier or even planted in a good spot, but because it came home to me in a coffee can, toted by a second grader who proudly handed it to me, a smile plastered on his dirt smudged face (and chicken pox about to break out on his sunburnt skin)...it was a trophy from his second grade outdoor school adventure and whenever I see it, whenever I stand beneath its bows, I feel so close to my oldest boy. John threatened to cut it down when we were doing the yard, the tears of a mommy softened his stand on it and it remains in the corner of the front yard, a sentinel over the house and street.

I know it is a strange thing, to blog about plants and trees, but as I watched our cherry blossoms be ripped from the tree and fly through the air during this "what are we in NOVEMBER?" day, I was reminded of their persistance to bloom. Each year John and I look forward to the blossoms of the tulips, lilacs and that blossoming cherry tree, after all, they signal the arrival of spring, and each year we hardly get to enjoy those hot pink blooms because the wind and rain rip them off the tree. I thought about that today, thinking to myself all of a sudden, we are meant to be like that tree aren't we Lord? We can choose to grow, bloom and thrive, even though we know that the storms are gonna come along and rip all those beautiful flowers away. We can also choose to be like that old lilac I have and never quite recover from being moved, disturbed or having our soil changed. As I continued to look at that tree I saw blooms flying through the air, looking every bit like pink snow, and I thanked the Lord that my choice is and will continue to be like that tree. Even though I know that the blooms in my life may get torn off my tree, and in many cases they SHOULD get torn off, even though I may have ants crawling all over me and an old decrepit bird feeder hanging charmingly off one of my branches, I am still gonna choose You, I am still gonna choose to bloom, to hang on, to never give up, to keep on blooming, year after year, even when I know there is a storm coming and even when all of my blooms aren't even open yet! What a hearty and beautiful reminder from the Lord about the persistence of true and deep love, the health of letting go and loving, even if from a distance and the desire to look more and more like the ONE who saved me from the certain death of my soul.

Yes Lord....I will do as you ask, even if it costs me much, even if it costs me.........

And speaking of costs...look at these two! wow...I got teary eyed watching John put the cuff links on the final prom tux of any of our boys. And then I walk out to see this lovely young lady who is so darn special it is incredible, and I just melted. She was/is a vision and I am so glad to have her in our lives.