The tree was full of poetry.  Earlier its limbs had been covered with an Easter frost and each needle glistened with the beauty of Mother Nature’s jewelry.  As the sun slowly removed the icy chains which held my new friend captive, you could almost see the tree stretching and reaching toward the warm rays of its heavenly liberator.

        The temperature for the previous month had been in the 60s, 70s and even 80s, but last night the temperature had dipped below freezing.  As I walked through the pasture the frozen grass crackles beneath my feet.  After a mile my toes began to protest with each step, because my canvas tennis shoes offered little in the way of insulation.  As I am about to turn around and return to the warmth of friends and family I see this lonely pine tree shivering in the cold.  While most of the tree is remains covered in frost this one branch is wrapped in the warmth of the suns rays.

        As I began to photograph this limb my eyes began to play tricks on me.  As I look through the viewfinder and experiment with composition, I believe I could see these newborn needles growing right before my eyes.  Their color appeared to transform and become more green and florescent; each needle seemed to lengthen and grow stronger as they were touched by the sun.  As I stood there sharing in the warmth and miracle of spring, I began to examine my own life.  Am I really growing?  Is my life growing warmer, sweeter, stronger, and more colorful or have I become complaisant and content with my mediocrity?

         Why are we here?  Why are we left here on earth except to grow?  The times in my life that I have made the greatest blunders were times I had convinced myself that I had already arrived.  (What my mother use to describe as getting too big for my britches.)  And the best times of my life have been those when I was standing the light of the Son and allowing every man to be my instructor.  We can learn many valuable lessons from some of the most unlikely teachers, if we have proper attitude and spirit.  Of course, if we are frozen with apathy and pride we could set before Aristotle and Plato and remain unimproved.  Growth is a choice; we can choose to better ourselves or to remain forever imprisoned in the cold cell of our indifference.  Can’t you feel the sun shinning?

Something to think about:

• Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.  Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

• The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way.

• I believe that life is given us so we may grow in love, and I believe that the Lord is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower—the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence… Helen Keller.

• Is life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied? You are the one who must grow up.

• Why wish for the privilege of living your past life again?  You begin a new one every morning.  You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.

• The wisest mind has something yet to learn . . . Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects . . . I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.

• Success is to be measured, not by wealth, power or fame, but by the ratio between what a man is and what he might be.

Keep on growing; when you are through growing, you are through.
Rickey Moore