Dreams Come True: Trees That Wood III

A Thwarted Dream Is Not A Lost Dream

One day a man paid the lone tree a visit. The man was no stranger to the tree, he was the same one who had cut his two friends and sent them to their dreams. The reassuring familiarity of the man, the Dream Maker, made the beautiful day even more better. The tree blew him a breeze, gifting the man with cool refreshing air tinged with dew and the smell of fresh healthy leaves. “But what are you doing here Dream Maker?” the tree asked.

The tree didn’t have to wait long for an answer. The Dream Maker took out his axe and begun surveying the tree.

“Wait what? What is he doing?” the tree asked the axe.

“What does it look like?” the axe gleefully replied.

AD: Is Your Child Ever Online? Click to look Into Internet Safety Solutions

“Is he going to cut me down?” the tree asked.

“Not only that, he is going to also chop you into pieces,” the axe replied.

“What? No. No. No. No. No! This can’t be, my dream has to come true. He can’t cut me. Isn’t he the Dream Maker? ” the tree cried.

“Dream huh? What would that dream be?” the axe enquired.

“I am to be the tallest, oldest, most far reaching tree the world has ever seen. I am to be the greatest tree of all time, always to be remembered,” the tree replied.

“Say goodbye to your stupid, stupid, dream. Greatest tree my blade!” the axe said, laughing.

“Come on axe, you should understand. Look, your handle is one of us. Surely you understand what it is to be a tree with dreams. Please don’t cooperate.”

“I was a tree, much like you. But I was cut down and made into an axe handle, you think that makes me less than you? You think you’re better than me with your hopes and dreams? Trees become wood and that’s just what it is. Your turn mate, your turn,” the axe said.

“Axe please,” the tree pleaded.

“Didn’t you call him a Dream Maker? Maybe he’s carving your dream, maybe we’re doing you a favor. Dreams! You’re as dumb as this blade I’m cursed to be attached to, cold one minute and hot the next, always at the mercy of the elements. Your dream is controlling you, if you kill it, you’ll have nothing to be sad about and you can become wood in peace,” the axe said.

Comparison Can Steal Your Joy

“But I want my dream. My friends are living theirs and I want to live mine,” the axe replied.

“Which friends? These two?” the axe asked, gesturing to the two stumps.

“Yes those. You cut them remember? You did send them to their dreams didn’t you? The tree replied.

“Well I don’t know what their dreams were. But I do know one became an animal feed box in a manger and the other a fishing boat. If those were their dreams, I’d say you had very unambitious trees for friends,” the axe replied.

“What? What? So this man is not a Dream Maker after all,” the tree said, and began to sob.

With every strike of the axe, the tree sobbed louder and louder until it fell.  

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” the axe asked.

But the tree was too bitter  and too embroiled in self-pity to respond.

Dreams Come True In Different Ways

The woodsman said, “I really don’t have anything special to do with such a strong, tall tree.”

And so he cut the tree into long, huge chunks and left it in a dark barn.

Years passed and the tree’s grew dimmer and dimmer.

“What is to become of me in this dark place where no one ever visits?” the tree would ask itself daily.

Then one day the man opened the barn and took out the wood. He took it to the carpenter who turned the pieces into something the tree could not identify.

“What is this?” the tree wondered.

The tree was finally handed to a man. He wore only his undergarments and a crown of thorns. He was covered in spit and blood. A large crowd followed him, spitting, hitting, abusing him. He was clearly tired and the burden of the tree, a bit much. He fell, tree in tow, not once but thrice.

“Who is this man? What is this?” the tree wondered.

“Hey you, carry his torture stake,” a soldier yelled out to man in the crowd and handed him the tree.

“A torture stake! Gouge my splinters out! A torture stake! I am a torture stake! So much for thinking dreams come true. The axe was right, how stupid of me to think dreams come true”, the tree wailed.

The soldiers stood the tree on a hill and nailed the man to it, His crown of thorns intact. Above His head and affixed to the tree they wrote: “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.”

And on each side of him, on their own torture stakes were two men, who despite their own demise reproached the Man crowned with thorns. 

The people standing by mocked and reproached him too, “Save yourself,” they said.

“What kind of King is this?” the tree wondered.

The man called out with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. And then the tree felt the earth tremble and shake. The tree saw rocks split. From the hill, the tree saw tombs open and the dead rise. Then the tree heard the words of the very frightened army officer and his colleagues keeping watch over the man, “Certainly, this was God’s Son.”

“The Son of God? The Son of God! The Son of God!” the tree screamed in disbelief.

And in that moment, the tree realized its dreams had come true, far beyond its wildest dreams. It had borne up The Son of God!

What dream d you dream? Keep hope alive. Be inspired to keep going. Dreams come true!