A Tree Is A Teacher
This month, we celebrate Tu Bishvat, Jewish Arbor Day. For this ancient holiday, I believe the following story is most appropriate.
When James A. Garfield, later president of the United States, was head of an eastern college, a man brought his son to be enrolled as a student. “My son doesn’t have time to take all the required subjects, and, “said the father, “he wants to finish his studies more quickly. Can you arrange it for him?”
“Oh, yes,” said Mr. Garfield. “He can take an abbreviated course. But that all depends on what you want to make him. When God wants to make an oak, it takes 100 years, but God only takes two months to make a squash.”
“It takes time and patience for an acorn to grow into an oak, for a boy to develop into a mature man, and for a girl to become a wise and productive woman. Moreover, a tree has not fulfilled itself until it can provide shade, give fruit or be of value to others. The tree attains a measure of immortality when it can scatter its seeds throughout the world and thus make sure that what it has created will become implanted and in time continue to produce.
Similarly, human fulfillment occurs when we can so live as to be of value to others. We also find a portion of immortality by scattering seeds of kindness and making sure that the course in which we’re interested will continue to produce the results for which we have planned and worked.
Happy is the person whose delight is in the law of God.
That person shall be like a tree planted by a stream of water. Psalms 1: 1-3