Apple Blossom Days

Well, I had to go to the Internet for lovely Springtime pictures.  It is raining on the foothills here and snowing a lot up in the mountains.  It just looks like warmer weather will never come and stay, although of course it will.  I counted the number of months we can have snow here, from Halloween through May (and June, if you count the mountains).  That is a lot of cold weather and few really warm months.  A little tough for a person whose mood is deeply affected by a lack of light.  But I am thankful that light will return and flowers await.

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Several years ago, our landlord tried to chop down the apple tree, a much beloved part of our backyard.  I guess he didn't want to pay to have it pruned and even though it was also much loved by his late wife, he took a chain saw to it and cut off all the branches, leaving nubs on a naked trunk.  It broke my heart and I shed many tears over it.  The children stopped playing in the backyard because they hated to be reminded that the apple tree was gone.  However, the following year, shoots began to grow from the nubs at the top of the stump.  Over the next few years these shoots grew and strengthened into branches.  Last Spring, a few of these branches held blossoms.  Our landlord, somehow softened by the regeneration in our backyard, actually hired someone to prune the tree.  This Spring blossoms abound in magnificent profusion.  Our lovely tree is back.

Who would have known that heartbreaking Spring when "our" tree seemed gone forever, that in a few short years it would be better than ever?  Watching this miracle unfold, I couldn't help but relate it to life.  I have lived long enough now to have experienced several severe periods when life was bleak, when I could barely envision a better future.  However, with  much prayer, perseverance, and as much faith as I could summon, the healing power of Christ took what seemed like the nubs of my life and brought forth beauty that I could never have imagined.  Sometimes we hold on so tightly to what we have and we don't want it to change; we don't want to let go.  The apple tree reminds me that when all seems lost, Time in the hands of the Master can bless us beyond what we would had before all of the wreck and ruin.  After all of the cutting, comes the blossoms.

I may have written about this before and if I have, I apologize for the redundancy.  But our apple blossoms always set me to thinking, even under gray skies and incessant rain. :)
Love,
Elizabeth