The Tree

Sometimes, little moments of unexpected beauty can make you breathless. At first glance, this may seem like a naked cottonwood. That glance would be correct. :-) At second glance, it turns into a living painting. One that looks too painfully beautiful to be real. The color of the Montana sky, a blue so intense and so crisp I wish I could break a piece off to store away for a rainy day. Next, I see the delicate feathery branches, supporting the sky, twigs, so fragile looking, but strong enough to hook the heavens with its tendrils and link itself to the earth down to the roots. I love to look at those branches against the sky. They are so different from sunrise to dusk. In the morning they are lit with a light that reminds me of honey dripping off of a spoon. Lazy, golden and sweet. At night each branch is in stark relief against the sunset. Inky black against layers of color ~ so defined and deliberate, reminding me of a Chinese brush painting. I have tried and tried to catch "The Tree" against this rich backdrop only to fail miserably. Looking down from the branches you reach the trunk. Huge. Rough. Myriad shades of cinnamon, chocolate, sienna, buff, grey. Visual depth that makes me itch to draw it. "The Tree" is at the top of a hill I travel several times everyday completing the tasks that make up my day. Each time I start to drive up the hill I look eagerly for my friend. Those little bits of beauty shore up my soul. I know that a God who chose to create a simple tree as a masterpiece, is an amazing Creator indeed. I wonder how people can doubt that God is real when there is so much attention to detail and beauty in our lives. Each time I "shore up" my soul it feeds my testimony just a little bit more and I am so grateful for my life. "The Tree", a friend indeed.