family tree

A storm must have come and blown that massive tree sideways.  It is amazing to think that it didn’t die.


Instead it thrived.  The tree just kept growing crooked; it stretched its trunk sideways and forced its roots down deeper into the earth and it lived despite the damage it had endured.

As my children joyfully swung from branches that were meant to be far too high for them to reach, and hopped up a trunk that should have required  a rope to scale, I smiled and thought of how surviving the storms blesses those who come after us.


I stared at those roots and marveled at the size of them.  The beautiful design that is usually hidden underground was on display.

How many times have I seen tragedy expose God’s greatness in our own life?  When our lives are lived out in the open they can become testimonies of God’s glory.


Mr. Fantastic and I gathered up the children and we all sat down on the roots.  It seems we have found our tree.

Here we are, a family living out in the open, crooked from some storms, but thriving, thankful, and growing as we stretch our roots deeper and deeper into God’s life-giving grace.