Living to Tell the Story

I love my trees. For way too many years we lived without one tree in the backyard. The yard faces south so you can imagine how we fried out there by the time the hot afternoons rolled around with the sun beating down on us. It was almost unbearable in the hot summer months.

But one year, as a Mother's Day gift, because that is what I wanted, hubby put in a dozen or so lovely Colorado Aspen trees. They grow tall and straight up, 3 feet a year, so now I have a tall wall of trees. And no this is not pictures left over from the fall. These are the fresh new leaves that they are sprouting right now. They come out bronze, and over a couple of weeks they will turn green. And in the fall they become a gorgeous shade of yellow with some burgundy and red thrown in as well.

All summer long we have protection from the heat as we sit in it's shade and shadows and a shelter against the strong westerly winds around here. There is nothing I love more than to take my book and my coffee out to the chairs we keep close to them and just rest, even if there is at times a half dozen kids playing around me.

Everytime I'm out there I'm reminded of God's promise to us if we would come and draw close to Him:

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will
rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my
fortress,

my God in whom I trust"

Psalm 91:1-2 NIV