Over the past year the image of the tree has become pretty significant to me. The Lord often speaks to me through pictures and images, and the image of a tree seems to continue to come up. I have often found myself drawn to paintings and designs that incorporate trees.

At the beginning of this present journey the tree was small, just a shoot. Tender and willowy with roots that barely breached the soil. It was easily bent and swayed by the wind that often swirled around it. While it was planted in the soil and rooted there, moments would go by that would tug at the very roots holding it in place. The tree often felt like an moment she would lose her hold and be carried off by the mighty rushing wind.

As time went on an amazing thing happened, the tree grew. The roots dug themselves down more deeply into the soil, the trunk thickened and became more firm, the branches began to reach towards the heavens. The winds still rushed and swirled around but the little tree was no longer swayed as easily. There were less and less moments where the tree felt like it would be plucked from the soil it clung to and carried off by the wind. There was a settling, a confidence that no longer would the slightest breeze threaten to overtake the tree.

As the tree stretched toward heaven joy began to spring forth. It started small at first, just little hints here and there, but as the sun shone down and the tree soaked in it's warmth, as the roots grabbed hold of the soil and felt their firm grasp, the tree couldn't help but be overcome. She knew that she was growing, changing, strengthening. She knew that she was firmly planted in a soil so rich she only had to soak in it's nutrients. Her job, her task was to soak in the sun, feel it's warmth, bask in its greatness and to open herself up to the richness in the soil holding her in place.

She still had much more growth to do, but now, being a bigger and stronger tree, she could dance with the wind instead of bow her head in shame and fear.