Am I Hiding...Again?

I can remember climbing many trees. We loved our adventurous scrambling up their branches.

Especially me. I remember climbing up the rough branches to see far and wide. I remember climbing to win. I remember climbing to discover and explore the woods and world around me. I remember climbing to be safe from who was after me since we were always playing chase or hide-n-go-seek with someone.

One day when we had company from out of town, us kids were climbing trees in our back yard. In the really, really, fast blink of an eye I remember falling out of the top of a willow tree. I landed flat on my back, winded. I was unable to talk for awhile and just laid there and blinked and gasped like a fish out of water. It was so hard to look cool in front of my cousins as I wheezed there on the ground. I can't help but smile since I, of course, am older and able to see the humor in it now.

Just yesterday, I was out riding my Dad's 4-wheeler . A neighbor's horses were grazing on one side. Another neighbor's cows were grazing on the other side. The crickets were chirping. The birds were singing. And the wind was drifting through the branches of the live oak trees over me.

Things have been really hard lately. It doesn't mean that I am not blessed. You can be grateful but still find it hard. I have had some personal changes recently because in January I resigned from my job and was diagnosed with a serious medical condition almost on the same day! Talk about winds of change.

The other day, I brought my camera with me and snapped several pictures of the trees. I guess I am just drawn to them at this moment in my life. My health is almost back to normal now and I love being in the country with my family. But emotionally, sometimes I find myself remembering how it was to climb a tree. Maybe to hide again like I did as a child. Yes, I think so. For real. Not because I don't trust the One who made the tree. Not because I don't feel rooted. I know that I am. But, being real right now, I truly need the rest. I need to just lean back against Him and hear His whisper.

I could just sit in a swing hanging out of those massive branches and just ride the wind over and over again.

But seasons change and spring will turn to summer, and summer will turn to fall.

In closing, I see the live oak branches hanging over my window as I write this. What a beautiful reminder of Him in this season. And you, my friend, I pray that you see His covering over you, in your season.

by Patti Corbello Archer
Lake Charles, LA