When I was very young I had an affinity for trees. They lined my paths, they were mysterious, something to climb to see far off views in the distance. They were living jungle gyms where secret treasures could be found among their leaves and needles.

 (picture by Artist Aaron Pocock)

They were hideouts where a boy could sneak beneath their branches away from weather or wind or to climb up and up into make-believe places far away from the human struggles in which I lived.

God made trees and every year within their bark they show a ring of life. Rings which record history over decades, waiting over scores of time patiently standing in the same place, never moving to the right or left but reaching ever higher, wider and bearing fruit which is of course their ultimate purpose. As God said…

“See, I have given you every herb that…