When Chicago weather permits, I like to go on walks for exercise and to clear my head. But as an imaginative and analytical person, I sometimes still have strange thoughts as I trek. While recently doing a photo dump on my phone, I came across pictures I had taken of trees and was reminded of one such wondering. If trees communicated, what would they say? 
Would weeping willows be teased about their sensitivity? Might maples be judged for being in food service, or called saps for being so sweet? The pines called upon for their family coffin business? Do they all speak highly of the oaks? Are trees green with envy, jealous of the evergreens’ popularity at Christmas time? Are they fans of the palms, looking up to them because they hang around the rich and famous and have beach houses? Do trees help each other grow, or are they shady toward one another?
What I know for a fact is that trees have different purposes. Some are for decoration. Some offer food. Others are functional; used for furniture or even to build homes, like cabins. Trees have also been misused; switches pulled for discipline, branches bearing strange fruit for demonstration. And then there is the dogwood; historians say that this was the kind of tree used to make the cross that Jesus was crucified on. We shape trees for our use. But a tree was also used to shape us and our future.
Today, Easter Sunday, is the foundation of the Christian faith. It is our why. All else rests upon the fact that we believe Jesus died and rose again for our sins. I can write, post and share a lot of things about my faith walk as a woman. I can teach girls that they are pearls. But there is no faith without works. There would be no pearls without a process. More than a decoration, the cross is the process that makes us into who God created us to be, the promise that He makes all things new. Jesus, The One who was guilty of nothing, did everything…on a cross, a tree. We are also to do something. We are to build His Kingdom, to bear fruit.
If you have never done so, today is a good day to say *The Sinner’s Prayer below. No more important words have ever been written. I pray that the seeds of His love will be planted in your heart, take root, and continue to grow.
*Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.
“I am the vine, you are branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
