It's funny that I don't even remember the man's name. It was a Sunday night, and my husband and I had gone to church for an evening program with a Christian comedian. Really, it was a rather ordinary day, ending with our regular Sunday evening church attendance. When we walked through the doors that evening, I had expected to laugh. What I did not expect, however, was to be hit to the heart with a vision that would become the mission of the rest of my life.
In between the jokes about choir bus tours and fellowship meals, the comedian became suddenly serious. He began to tell a tale of his family history--immigrant great-grandparents who had to make their way in this vast, new land called America by the sweat of their brow. And, considering that they settled in Texas, they sweat A LOT. He spoke about the bush trees in West Texas, how they don't provide much relief from the sweltering Texas sun. One day, when his great-grandfather was still a very young man, a neighboring farmer saw him out in front of the family home, meticulously burying dozens of acorns. The farmer approached the grandfather, laughing, and asked, "what in the WORLD are you doing?"
"I'm planting shade trees," the grandfather quietly replied as he continued dropping seeds into the warm soil.
"Shade trees?" the farmer exclaimed, "Don't you know it will take YEARS before these things are big enough to provide any shade? You'll be long gone before then!" he stated smugly. The grandfather continued planting--determined.
"I'm not planting them for me," he said patiently, "I'm planting them for my grandchildren."
That's when my heart skipped a beat, and God took the words of a comedian I don't even remember and began to reveal to me His plan for the rest of my life: PLANT SHADE TREES.
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