I have an evergreen tree in my yard that I mow around every week during the mowing season. We had one at the last place we lived and, if at all possible we will have one wherever we live as long as I am mowing my own yard. Why? So I can mow around an evergreen tree.
It's one of those markers in my life that reminds me of something very important every time I do it.
There was an old mentor in my life some years ago that loved trees. He had planted most of the trees on our conference center grounds. One day I was on the grounds and this old man in his 80s was angry. He motioned me into his car and we drove, literally, all over the grounds looking at the trees. He was angry because the grounds keepers had been damaging the low hanging branches of the evergreens with the mower. Because he was old and a bit eccentric they ignored his vehement protests. He rode me around showing me the damage and then drove me into town to show me a specimen of how a healthy evergreen should look. Our tour concluded with him charging me with the task of protecting the trees after he was gone. I agreed, what else could I do?
Some months later the old mentor was informed of his impending death so he sat me down and shared with me the secret of life as he understood it. He didn't say anything about the evergreen trees but he did mention another "tree". He said to me, "it's all about the cross".
He shared with me how, throughout his life, things happened to break him and decrease him so that Christ could be increased in his life. He taught me about the crucifixion of self (Galatians 2:20) in a way no one else had ever explained it bringing to bear his 80 some years of faithfully following Jesus. It was one of those moments that I knew my life was changing. I experienced transformation in those few short hours.
As the years have passed I could possibly forget the lessons and the transformation I experience that day, except for one thing... Every time I mow around an evergreen I remember his chastisement over the trees and my promise to look out for them. I smile to myself and without fail my mind shifts to his last words to me: "It's the cross... Remember, it's all about the cross."
As long as I have the strength to mow my own lawn I will always make sure I have an evergreen to mow around so I will remember the sage words of my old friend.
"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ who lives in me. For the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." -- Galatians 2:20
- David Delp . AGoodDeposit.com
