Friday Flowers : Fruitful Trees

Cedar Waxwing at the hospital this week

In another month these ornamental crab apple trees will be blooming at the hospital and we will know spring has truly arrived. All winter, their fruit laden branches have been ignored by the birds except for a brief December visit from some Pine Grosbeaks. But now the Robins and Waxwings have been on them daily and will pick them clean by the time the new leaves emerge. And the short-lived blooms will provide another crop of fruit for the birds next winter.


Today is my parents' fifty-fifth wedding anniversary. They were married in Ontario and drove to Washington D.C. for their honeymoon to see the cherry blossoms. The bloom of youth is past but their lives have been very fruitful with five children, fourteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren on the way this year. As well as giving us physical life, they have nurtured us spiritually, encouraging us be fruitful and refreshing to others according to their example.

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming,
"The LORD is upright;he is my Rock,
and there is no wickedness in him."

Psalm 92:12-15

Happy 55th Anniversary
Mom and Dad!!