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It was there in the beginning… the tree of life.

What comes to your mind when you think of a tree? A shady place to rest your head. Limbs you can climb up. Nice tasty fruit to eat. Wood you can burn to build a nice warm fire in your fireplace. Fall leaves to jump and play in. Wood to build a house to live in.

I live in Middle Tennessee where there are lots and lots of trees. In the last 10 years I've tried to move away from this area twice. Both times I found myself missing the trees here more than most anything else. It was always something I took for granted and never realized what the trees in my life have come to mean to me. For me, trees represent the seasons… in the spring the trees start to bud and bloom, in the summer the trees get very green, in the fall the leaves start to wither and die and fall covering the ground with an array of reds, yellows, oranges and golds and in the winter the leaves are dead and gone and all that remains are the branches of what used to be.

Such is life. Things come and go. There is life, there is death, there is growth, there is pruning. Trees represent all those things to me.

In the very first book of Psalms it says that "Blessed is the man who's delight is in the law of the LORD."

A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya on a mission trip. It was in October and it was very dry. The vegetation was minimal. It was dusty, dry and barren. I will never forget the day we were walking across this barren plain and out of nowhere there appeared this tree. It was huge. It seemed so odd to be right in the middle of nothing. The tree is called a baobab tree. Many people say it looks like it has been pulled up out of the ground, and been put in backwards because it's very thick in the middle with all these branches sticking up in the air almost like roots. Water is stored in the trunk of the tree and that's why it looks so weird. I was told people can actually live in the trunks of the baobab tree and all parts of the tree can be used for different things – obviously a very "fruitful" tree.

Several years before that I lived in Texas in an area where there were very few trees. When I found a place to live I was so excited because there was a big tree in the back yard and it was the closest thing I could find to a place that reminded me of home. I will never forget my disappointment when my boyfriend told me many people consider this tree I loved to be a junk tree because it produced this cotton like substance that floated in the air and caused a number of problems for cars and air conditioners. Regardless of the "fruit" it produced, I still loved it because it was big and green and reminded me of home.

I find it very interesting that in Matthew, Jesus says we are recognized by the fruit we bear. Not all fruit is good. Not all fruit is beneficial.

It gives me a whole new perspective on what God expects from me.

Dear Lord, while it is a very painful process, I realize that in order for me to bear good fruit, there must be some pruning. I thank you for loving me so much to help make me a better witness for You Lord. And as Job says… "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

"Word from Scotland" from Sandy Shaw

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