Trees and what not

How often do you look at trees?  Or when you see them, whether dead or alive, what do you think of?  When I see a dead tree, it makes me think, "man..  where's the fruit that used to be there?  Where are the leaves?  Where's the green stuff?"

In order for it to be a tree, there had to have been some sort of apple or orange at least once.  If not something so defined, maybe even an incredibly small flower.  There had to have been some pretty vibrant leaves.  There had to have been some redonkulous greenery..  I mean, if all the other trees around it are green, surely that tree should be green.

I was driving from my parents' house once when I noticed all of the trees on my left hand side.  Some were alive, but most were dead.  After all, we were at the end of winter, going into spring.
I just thought it was so weird how through the seasons, some trees stayed alive and others died.

 

This tree is in the back yard of my parents' house.  Ironically, this picture was taken sometime in April.  I remember because it was just about a month before I got married.  But I can remember being at home and looking into the back yard and noticing that this particular tree was always green.  It stayed green throughout the year.  It was always alive and even though a branch or two died occasionally, the tree remained steady.

If you can't tell by the picture, this thing's HUGE!  Just for a little perspective, you can see our old dog on the left of the tree trunk.

Trees get that big because they are able to stay alive year-round, they have a root system that goes deeper than just the surface, and they are in open sun light.

As Christians, we need to learn how to be the trees that stay alive all the time (2 Tim. 4:2).  We need to learn how to be the trees that produce fruit all the time (Psa. 1:2).  We need to learn how to get deeper rooted than just beyond the surface (Luke 6:48), and we need to become more and more open to the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2).