A Cherry Blossom Heaven

It holds court in our backyard, this tree that produces blossoms in the spring and causes my husband massive anxiety over clean up. I study the way the branches hang lower than previous springs. How I am able to snip off a stem for a crystal vase in the house, the light pink blooms drenched in rain weighing the branches down to just above the head. I think about record rainfall here in Oregon, and for this gift I am happy glad. And I think about those branches, how laden they are with the blossoms hanging down to my touch. We are like those tree branches at times. Weighed down with pain, trials, burdens we didn't ask for and will the rain stop pouring down hard on all the hurting?

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

For thirty-five years I thought this was a plum tree planted in our yard. This gift of nature that has grown exponentially, shades the entire deck now. After returning from cherry blossom heaven in the DC area, I took a closer look at the blooms, at the trunk and the stems. And after searching the Internet my husband and I decided this must be one of those trees I had secretly coveted. How had I missed this? How did I not know I had this covert desire of mine right in front of me all these years?

Maybe it was all that ice and snow we had this winter, or perhaps it was the chronic rainy days blanketing the city that caused me to take notice of this tree that reigns beauty under patches of sunlight, adorns the color-starved landscape with splashes of pink. 

 And as the rain lets up, those branches inch higher toward the sun muscling its way through the gray clouds, slowly lifting toward the light reaching out from above. It always comes back to the light. When the darkness fades, the pain relief comes, the trial is over, the burden is lifted even for a flicker of a moment, we catch glimpses of His redeeming light slicing through the dark. Maybe without the drenchy hard rainy seasons, without the icy cold dark hours, we would never reach His full height of that radical grace. Never see for ourselves the deepest, secret desires of ours, that beautiful deposit of heaven that lies way deep within, waiting ever so patiently to be recognized, celebrated and crazily rejoiced in.

#Gracealwaysgrows