(Above) l-r Amy, Owen, Joian, Christina, Melody & Levi
Next month I will be renting my home for the first time to someone outside our family. As it happens my daughter and her husband will be returning from North Carolina for a five day visit just before I move. I decided to have a “Goodbye Slumber Party” at the house and allow the girls to pick from the furniture and memorabilia still there, then share a last supper in this place that holds so many memories.
Years ago we built a deck off the back of the house. My son thought it would be neat to plant a tree that would grow up through the middle of the new deck. The idea also appealed to me. So we dug up and transplanted a Kapok tree that had been growing in the back of the yard. Kapok trees have a bright green trunk and as they mature they grow large thorns that cover the trunk.
I had no idea how fast and large the tree would grow or several of its other unknown to me, attributes. A couple of the kids loved to knock the thorns off, which was very necessary for the tree to be safe on the deck……..lol More than once the enormous pink flowers bounced off visitors heads. They also made a thud on the roof when they landed, causing you to startle if home alone. Then there was the constant dripping of some sort of liquid in the summer which made you think someone was spitting in the wind in your direction. Last but not least, was the growth potential of 50’-100’. It slowly dawned on me that we had picked the wrong tree for our deck, especially when the circumference outgrew the hole we had cut and began to pull the deck off it’s frame…….. Yet, I kept enlarging the hole in the deck, and put up with all the other problems for a couple of reasons………perhaps you’ll agree…….
It was about a year after the divorce………I walked out on the deck as Amy was reading a book called “The Giving Tree”, a story of a tree who gave shade and shelter and finally it’s all, becoming firewood. I sat down beside her as she read the book out loud and the Lord ministered peace to both of us.
When she finished she said, “Mom, let’s call this tree, pointing to the problematic Kapok, our giving tree and look it even has a face!”. Not convinced, I said, “where”? She pointed up to a place where two branches had been cut off leaving two identical circles that looked like eyes. Right below those two circles was a scar on the bark that looked like a mouth, turned up in a smile. Now who could cut down a tree with a face……..lol
That was almost 16 years ago……since then it has shaded and added pink profusion to several weddings. It held strings of lights and piñata ropes, delighted cats, kids and 100s of hummingbirds. The tree like the house has been a symbol of my Father’s faithfulness to me and my family……thorns and all……… a sheltering place where over and over he prepared a table for me in the presence of my enemies, he made the crooked way straight, comforted healed and restored. It was here, I learned to forgive, forget and begin anew. Here, I discovered peace and rest were within and that the kingdom, king and lover of my soul is there also……..
As I leave this known and familiar physical place I have called home for thirty-eight years, I am no longer afraid, angry and hateful…… I am just grateful……so very grateful to have found the "giving" tree himself…….. he also has a face, and it looks like mine.
Love,
Joian
