A few weeks ago, I blogged about white pine trees. If you could get a bird’s eye view of a nice patch of woods, white pines are the ones you would see popping up above the surrounding trees. They grow tall and straight…unless, of course, they are growing along the coast, pummeled by the constant winds blowing in from the ocean. They twist and turn in all different directions as they grow, but their growth is not halted by their surroundings. They don’t look on the outside like the trees most of us are familiar with, but they are still white pines. They still grow each year, they still have needles, and they still bear cones. The only difference is their shape (which, by the way, I think is really cool).
Veterans Day in the United States is a day to honor those who have served in the U.S. military. I am proud of the veterans in my family who served our country in the Marines (my father), the Navy (my father-in-law), and the Air Force (my brother). There are more in our extended family, but I’ll keep the list short here. Each one, whether they were directly involved in a military conflict or not, was affected by their experience physically or emotionally, or both. The rest of us may never know the true price they paid. Perhaps there are days they feel like the twisted pine, but in my eyes, they are some of the tallest trees in the forest.
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13).
You can read my post about white pines here https://laurihawley.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/dropping-time/
Lauri Hawley 