"My child, do not be afraid. I love you and I am with you. I have given you a special gift that will help you through the storm. You have the gift of flexibility. You can bend and sway without breaking. You can adapt and adjust without losing your shape. You can flow and move without losing your place. You can be strong and resilient without being rigid and brittle. You can be graceful and elegant without being weak and fragile. You can be generous and hospitable without being selfish and greedy. You can be faithful and loyal without being stubborn and obstinate. You can be humble and grateful without being proud and arrogant. You can be all these things because you are like me. You are made in my image and likeness. You are my beloved child, and I am your loving father."
The Grace of the Willow Tree…
My momma often took my siblings and I to the park to play. I was always so excited to enjoy a family day there. We would have picnics, feed the ducks, and play our favorite games. At times, even though it was one of my favorite places to go, it was also a struggle when it came to playing with other children. I was a little shy, had a speech problem, dyslexia, a learning disability, and struggled with anxiety as a small child. This, and I was missing my four front teeth most of my childhood due to a tricycle accident with my rampageous cousin. I was teased often and most of my childhood I struggled with fitting in. I loved playing under what would become my favorite willow tree. To this child’s eyes, it looked so large and beautiful and as I walked through the long branches that created its natural curtain, I felt it had the ability to take me to a new world. A place where I felt safe, great comfort, at peace and strong, as if it was my own secret world. It was often my play companion, audience to many theatrical plays, musical performances and at times just moments of prayer, silence, and with enjoyment of feeling invisible from the outside world.
As I grew older, I faced many challenges and changes in my life. Through all these difficulties, I always found solace and comfort within my faith. My connection to God continued to grow deeper and I found my challenges were met by constantly relying on my faith for strength and guidance to get through. I began to remember the willow tree at the park and how it was put in my life in a time where I may not have truly understood how God’s love truly worked; how it was always surrounding me with His arms of comfort and providing me shelter, protection, and peace. What a gift from God for me as a child to find something like a willow tree to feel and learn an example of His Grace, love, safety, peace, and comfort that He unconditionally continues to provide me and not just when I was a small child playing under the willow tree.
Through the years I began to learn more about the willow tree and how it is referenced in the bible. There are other trees that grow larger, are more solid in the trunk yet, the willow tree can sway, bend, is flexible, resilient, and is able to adjust to wind, and weather any storm that may come. Where an Oak tree——though it is large and strong——it is not like the willow and will often break under such challenging conditions. In scripture, it says God wants us to be like the willow tree. To learn to sway, be flexible, to have faith and trust in Him through all of life’s storms. The willow tree holds the ability to regrow and make itself new again as God also does for us.
I soon realized the beautiful gift and lesson God had given to me from my favorite willow tree.
The Willow’s Grace