Winter's Lovely Bare Trees

  During springtime, trees clothe themselves with leaves of various tints and shades of green. Did you know the human eye can perceive more variations within the green family than within any other color group?

  Leaves are beautiful, but there’s something about bare trees in winter that I like.

  Poet Samuel Menashe said this:

  When one sees the tree in leaf
  One thinks the beauty of the
  Tree is in its leaves,
  And then one sees the bare
  Tree.
 
  Bare trees remind me of the studs of a house before drywall is hung on them.

  While my family lived (for 28 years) in Southern Pines, NC, I saw — what else? — a lot of tall pines. The Sandhills of NC is fairly flat. Ft. Bragg, not far from where we lived, was home to 45,000 soldiers. Once, while driving to Fayetteville, I looked into the woods on Ft. Bragg’s property and saw soldiers and tanks camouflaged so well that I almost missed seeing them. Soldiers and equipment blended with trees.

  Joyce Kilmer, born on Dec. 6, 1886, wrote this famous poem called “Trees.”

  I think that I shall never see
  
  A poem lovely as a tree.
  A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
  
  Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;
  A tree that looks at God all day,
  
  And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
  A tree that may in summer wear 
  
  A nest of robins in her hair;
  Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
  
  Who intimately lives with rain.
  Poems are made by fools like me,
  
  But only God can make a tree.

  Kilmer died at age 31. As a U.S. soldier, he was struck down by a German sniper’s bullet on July 30, 1918.

  Did you know that trees are mentioned in the Bible more than any living thing other than God and people? (I found most of the following truths about trees at christianity.com.)

  “Trees are the oldest living things on earth. There are trees alive today that were already ancient in the time of Christ.

  “There’s a tree on the first page of Genesis, the first Psalm, the first page of the New Testament, and the last page of Revelation.”

  Noah received the olive branch. Abraham sat under the oaks of Mamre. Moses stood barefoot in front of the burning bush. Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore. A blind man saw people as if they were trees walking after Jesus prayed. The disciples gathered on the Mount of Olives. The apostle Paul wrote that if we observe God’s natural world, we are without excuse for knowing God. Paul wrote that Gentile Christians are like branches grafted into Israel’s tree trunk.

  Isaiah used symbolism about plants when he talked about Jesus.

  “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground . . . ” (Isaiah 53:2-3).

  Jesus grew up in a carpenter’s home. He talked about seeds of faith and said the kingdom of heaven was like a tree.

  He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman [gardener].”
  
  Jesus’ favorite place to pray was an olive grove. And he died on a tree.

  “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me, ” Jesus said.
  
  “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).

  Here are the lyrics to “He Grew the Tree,” written by Chuck Lawrence in 1982:

  He molded and built a small lonely hill
  That He knew would be called Calvary
  Then he made the seed that would grow to be
  Thorns that would make His Son bleed
  Then He made a green stem, gave it leaves and then
  Gave it sunshine, and rain, and sheltered it with moss
  And He grew the tree, that He knew would be
  Used to make the old rugged cross

  (Chorus) And nothing took His life
  With great love He gave it
  And He was crucified on a tree that He created
  With great love for man
  God stayed with His plan
  And He grew the tree so that we might go free

  With tears in His eyes, God looked down through time
  Saw Him spat upon, rejected, and mocked
  Still He grew the tree that He knew would be
  Used to make the Old Rugged Cross

   I can hardly look at a large bare tree during wintertime that I don’t think of the song “He Grew the Tree.” Thank you, Lord, for your love for us. Amen.