February 12, 2008
Dear Friends,
February is here and with it is the hope of Spring. This morning was cold with a bit of fog at my house but this afternoon was bright sunshine which gave me the chance to get out on my motorcycle for a short ride. The trees are still bare with an empty lifeless look to them…unless you look a little closer. All over the small maple tree in my back yard are little buds that are just beginning to show signs of swelling with the hope of new life.
All through the year I go spend time looking over my maple tree. When I first planted it a few years ago it was just a little stick that didn’t even reach to my waist. I remember telling my neighbor that I would plant it where it would give him some shade from the broiling late afternoon sun in the summer. He kind of laughed at me for thinking that this little twig would ever do him any good but I knew better.
During the first summer that little sapling grew fast and as it went to sleep in the Fall it reached to my chin…my neighbor was didn’t even notice. The next summer the little tree grew taller but was very slender; no more than an inch in diameter. My neighbor was shocked that it had grown well past the top of my head and now reached up to eight feet tall before it went back to sleep for another winter.
The next spring the little tree came to life and shot up like a rocket. It was about twelve feet tall, slender and easily swayed by the wind. I was really enjoying the beautiful little tree that summer until one windy day I came home to find that it had become too top heavy and had snapped about four feet above the ground. I was really sad as I went to the shed and got out the shears to cut it off just below the break. I think my neighbor thought I might be a bit nuts because I wouldn’t give up on that little maple and I think he was a bit surprised to see in a couple of weeks that new shoots began to appear just below the place that I had cut it off.
Two summers have passed since the wind broke my little tree. In that time it has grown fast and strong. The trunk is now almost as big as my forearm and toward the end of last summer it had grown tall enough that the shade was just beginning to reach my neighbors back patio. He commented that he just might be able to enjoy that shade sooner than he had ever expected.
Today my little tree stands almost fifteen feet tall. I pruned a few branches out of it last weekend to prepare for the season of growth to come. About four feet up the trunk there are three strong branches spreading out and reaching for the sky. In the middle of those branches a little dried out nub sticks up reminding me of the day the wind broke the tree and I had to cut it off. Slowly the healthy wood is growing up and swallowing that little nub so that one day no one will ever be able to tell that it had ever been broken. Perhaps by the end of another summer or two my neighbor will be able to start really enjoying the late afternoon shade from my “puny little tree”. I know that I have enjoyed every year that I have had with it.
I have a friend that I’ve known for nearly eight years. When I first met him he was about twelve years old and locked in the Juvenile Detention Center. He had a hard start in life filled with abuse and abandonment. I was able to introduce him to a couple that I had come to know and they began to pour in love. As the years passed my young friend grew under the care of the couple who had come to love him as their own. There were definitely struggles along the way and even a seemingly catastrophic failure that occurred not all that long ago. Some people might have even thought that we had been wasting our time but I was certain that I new better.
In spite of the catastrophic failure we wouldn’t give up and in time new signs of hope began to emerge. It has been several weeks since I was blessed with the opportunity to baptize my young friend. The struggles have been intense lately but I have seen the hand of the Lord working in his life and now the new signs of hope in him are sprouting reminding me of the buds on my maple tree that are waiting for the warmth of Spring.
Growing maple trees is a lot like the work we do with the kids in the Juvenile Justice System. I’ve never actually made a tree grow because that’s God’s job. All that I do is give the care and nurturing they need to have a chance and that is what so many of these kids need from us. The volunteers who serve in the county youth facility and the mentors who work with the kids one to one are all there providing the help needed for many of these kids to begin to grow strong. It can often be a struggle that may be filled with heartbreaks but it is so important.
Across town is a house where I used to live and in the large yard stand three maple trees that I started from seeds almost eighteen years ago. Today they stand almost thirty feet tall with full branches. From time to time I still go back to see them knowing that I was there to first see those seeds sprout in the buckets where I had planted them.
Next to my house are two small planters and sticking out of them are a couple of little maple trees less than two feet tall; sprouted from seeds that had blown into my yard. Thousands of maple seeds blew through my yard last summer but I picked up these two and gave them a place and a chance to grow. We need more mentors who would be willing to pick up one kid blowing on the wind and give that kid a safe place and a chance to grow…someone to introduce them to the Savior who will ‘give them a future and a hope’.
To all of you who participate in this ministry through your time, prayers, and financial gifts I want to say again…THANK YOU. Your participation blesses me and I’m pretty sure that it blesses the Lord too.
God bless you,