I have a long (1 hour each way) commute to work, but I am thankful that I can take a bus there.  At the park and ride where I leave my car, there is a small bushy pine tree.  This tree is special because it is situated exactly in a way that can completely shade a car from the sun all day (which is a blessing during the summer).

I don’t always get to the park and ride early enough to park next to the little tree, but when I do, the shade it provides is blessed relief from the heat!

However, I have been worried about the little pine tree this summer.  We have been having a drought and the little tree has been suffering from lack of water.  Actually everything around here has been suffering from lack of water, and so many trees and bushes have just withered away.

I have been praying a lot for rain, for the plants, and for the many firefighters who have been trying to put out wildfires this summer.  It has just seemed like we would not get any relief at all from this drought.

But we have been getting rain showers the past 3 days and when I went to work today, I parked near that little pine tree.  I was really happy to see that the rains have perked it up a little bit and it has green needles again.

I think my faith was not strong enough, certainly not as strong as it needed to be, and certainly not as strong as that tree is.  When that little tree received the gift of rain, it embraced the water and drew it in right away.  I thought – there is probably a lesson in this for me, so I spent some time in study tonight and found this lesson in Mark 11 about faith and withered trees:

“²⁰ Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹ And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” ²² So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. ²³ “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. ²⁴ “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. ²⁵ “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”  Mark 11:20-25 NKJV

Wow, that was kind of like getting hit in the head.  Yes, I guess I had too much doubt in my heart and did not believe strongly enough.  That is quite a lesson for me from a small tree!  I will never look at that little pine tree in the same way again!