As an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), I always make it a point to talk to my family in the Philippines online; we usually use Yahoo Messenger, and thank you very much for this technology. And while talking to my eldest daughter Alyssa, she recited the parts of the tree and to my surprise; she even knows the parts of a leaf.
And I want to share something about this magnificent creation from God. According to the good book, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper." (Psalm 1:1-3)
If you want to be a good tree, we need to have the following parts of a tree. From the roots, branches, trunk, leaves and fruit. We need to be planted first in a good soil, I believe it is God who plants us, siya naglalagay sa atin kung saan tayo pwede lumago, He will put us in a position wherein He knows we will grow as a person.
We also need to have roots; we needed to be firmly rooted to the word of God. We need to be rooted to a good soil, in life; we need to be rooted to good friends, good environment and a good church. And we need to grow where we are planted.
We need to have a stable trunk, there will come a time, people will try to cut you down, stay away from people who are negative, they may try to cut you down, but having a good trunk will stabilize your life. When people start to bark on the wrong tree, you have to learn to let it go and be strong.
We need to have branches, I like what Pastor Steve said in his book, he said, we need to engage our community; we need to branch out, engage with the people around you, talk to them, encourage them, bring the best out of them. And if you really believe in something, don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. And as a branch, we also need to be flexible so we don’t have to break when harsh wind blows.
We need to have leaves, I just don’t know how to relate this to life, but having leaves will make this tree more beautiful, just like in life, we need to make our lives beautiful. Oh, and this is a part of the tree where photosynthesis is processed. You need to get LIGHT into your life.
And lastly, we need to have fruits, kailangan natin ng bunga, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we need to have Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
We need all of this in our lives to be able to be a good tree. There’s a lot we can learn from trees. But wait a minute capeng mainit, To tell you the truth, I don’t have all of these qualities as of now, like a tree, we are all still growing, we are still in a process, you may be like a small seed pa lang, you may be in a part that you are still growing, you may be in the process of growing your branches, you may be the part of having leaves na, or you may be having fruits na, kaso maasim nga lang, hehe… But let me tell you something, we are all in a process and we should follow this process from root to the fruit and make sure we follow the right process from God…
