The Gift of Trees

One of my original watercolors paintings, "Dead Trees Lake"

There are zillions of them around the world, from the huge sequoias and the California redwoods, to the tiny shrub or seedling that will eventually grow into a huge tree. Jesus mentioned in one of his parables that a tiny mustard seed can grow into a large bush that can serve as a nesting place for many birds. So many of them are destroyed by fire every year, but environmentalists tell us that that is not so bad, because trees have to regenerate themselves from time to time, and sure enough, no sooner the stumps have disappeared that a new seedling starts to grow, and within a decade the same forest is filled again with new trees....the life cycle goes on. This next picture shows what I mean, a photo I took in 2007 on Dooley Mountain, 20 miles from Baker City OREGON.

Tamarack trees growing anew on Dooley Mountain, Oregon

This is a poem written by Sgt Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) a member of the 165th infantry division
                                                                 Trees
                                                             I think that I shall never see
                                                                 A poem lovely as a tree

                                                     A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
                                                    against the earth’s sweet 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.