We have recently purchased and moved to 32 acres of farm land near Lebanon, Ohio. I have been planting some trees. There are two Norwegian Spruces and a Maple Tree behind the House and a White Oak Tree that I have planted in front of the house.
I know that even if I live to be 100, I will never see the Oak fully mature. I intend to plant more in the coming months. Decades and decades from now, I hope that people will be blessed by thick, huge, magnificent trees. I know that I have been blessed by the plantings of others.
Every night, I lay down beside my children, one at a time. I stroke their hair, and they cuddle into my arms. We talk about all of the details of their day. That is very good time together. It is very individual. They each know that they get their own time to talk to daddy who takes interest in all of the things that they do during the day. Letting them know that they are special and loved is an important part of the ritual. But that isn't the only reason that I take that time at night with them. I also want to teach them to remember. I want them to make an effort to recall the events of the day and to put those events in context. I want them to learn how to express their thoughts on the day's occurrences and activities. As they think about the day's events, they scrunch up their foreheads or roll their eyes as they recall and think.
Like with the trees, I know that even if I live to be 100, I will never see these little children fully mature. But I hope that that people will be blessed by them and that they will grow to understand and appreciate the joys of the life that God has given to them.
Within a week after we planted the White Oak Tree in the front yard, its leaves turned brown and fell off. I was afraid that we had lost the tree. It was miserable. We had no rain, the days were blisteringly hot, and the tree stood alone without shade or relief. But we stayed at it and kept watering the tree, day after day.
This week, the White Oak Tree has come back into bud. New leaves are springing forth all over the tree. It was a close thing, but I think that it is going to make it. We're certainly not going to give up on it. I touch its bark and its tender, flexible branches. They feel healthy.
The children place their hands into mine. They have small perfectly shaped, delicate fingers. Matthew was weaving shapes in the air with his hands and arms tonight just for the joy of life. I've seen Elizabeth do the same. I love the health of their spirits. As I grow older, I recognize that my role is to reach from the hands of my parents to the hands of my children. And their role will be to reach from my hands to the hands of their children; to nurture and to grow, to bless one generation and the next, to love and to be loved.
I want them to remember, to see back and think about the whole of their lives, to find their context and to mature. I also want them to be watered well enough to withstand the droughts of life.
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil--this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13
Be Blessed.
JDS
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