The old tree from my childhood provides a beautiful analogy for our family tree.
When I was a child there was a big maple tree in our yard that we spent hours playing on.
My brothers hung swings from one branch that reached out across the lane. If you look closely at the photo, you can even see where the stretched out branch has been scarred by the ropes of our swings.
Another branch reached out the other direction, running along the ground and then angling up toward the sky; the perfect climbing tree.
As we grew older, it became the favourite backdrop for many family pictures. Eventually, the tree started to die, and my parents made the decision to have it removed....but those roots stretched deep, and the seeds from that maple tree had been scattered for years. The tree may be gone, but it lives on in our memories and in the many new trees it seeded.
