Keep Hope Alive: Trees That Wood I

Years passed, the trees held on to their dreams, they hoped and prayed. One day, a woodsman came into the woods, he inspected the first tree and decided it would make good wood to sell to the carpenter. So the woodsman chopped off the first tree. The tree was happy because it knew the carpenter would make it into a treasure chest.

Derailed Dreams Do Not Signal The End: Keep Hope Alive

The others trees were delighted on their friend’s behalf, “hang on to your dreams and keep hope alive,” they reminded their friend as the woodsman carried it away.

“I will, I will,” their friend responded in excitement.

The carpenter was indeed interested in the wood and readily bought it from the woodsman. The tree couldn’t be happier, “the feeling of success on the way to achieving it,” it said to itself, “alas I am going to become a treasure chest.”

And so the carpenter set to work, but instead of a treasure chest, he made an animal feed box! This was not at all what the tree had hoped for. For a long time the tree seethed with anger. Then it marinated in sadness. And when it was finally filled with hay and placed in a barn, the tree resigned itself to its fate. “What is there to keep hope alive for?” the tree asked itself whenever it remembered the mantra it had recited with its friends years earlier.

For years and years the tree served as manger for livestock on a farm, and with time, forgot its dream and aspiration of ever holding anything rare and precious. “Now that I’m old and reeking of animal urine and drool, who would possibly put anything precious in me?” And so the tree gave up.

Dreams Do Come True, Sometimes Not As Envisioned

Then one day, a man and a woman came into the barn. The woman was heavily pregnant and clearly very uncomfortable. Not long after entering the barn, the woman gave birth. The man wished he could have made a crib for The Baby but the manger would have to do for now. The couple wrapped The Newborn in swaddling clothes and placed Him on the hay in the manger.

The tree could feel the importance of The Child it was carrying. Then it remembered its dream to carry the rarest most precious gem. This was not jewelry, but a living, breathing human; Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Shepherds visited and told wondrous stories of singing hosts of angels. Kings visited with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh; they came to worship Him.

The little tree in the barn, a mere manger, carried The Savior of the world.

What are your dreams?

Continue To The Second Tree’s Adventures