—By Father DavidDFO11244/3/81

—A Tree Planted by the Rivers of Water!

1. YOU KNOW THAT TREE OUT THERE? YOU KNOW WHY IT'S PERFECT? Because it does nothing but obey the Lord! It never makes a mistake. It's perfect. It never sins, think of that! It only obeys the Lord in everything it does‚ in spite of everything it does‚ in spite of everything the Devil tries to do to it. The Devil sends blights & bugs & storms & all kind of things‚ but the Lord takes care of it because it just obeys the Lord, & that's why it's so beautiful! It lifts its leafy arms to praise the Lord! xxx! TYJ! PTL! Isn't that beautiful?

2. I THINK A TREE IS ALMOST AS BEAUTIFUL AS A WOMAN! I think the next most beautiful thing God ever made to a woman is a tree. It even looks like a woman with beautiful hair waving in the breeze. It never resists‚ it just yields & bends & bows & nods its head to the will of God & just smiles all day.

3. DID YOU EVER NOTICE A TREE IS FULL OF SMILES? Every parting of the branches is a smile with the corners turned up‚ see? They're all smiling. A tree is nothing but smiles, no frowns, unless man or the Devil's storms sometimes bend it the other way & make it a little ugly, then it just grows right back up again toward the Lord.

4. NO MATTER WHICH WAY YOU BEND IT OR EVEN BREAK IT, IT'LL GROW RIGHT BACK UP AGAIN TOWARD THE LORD. Nothing can stop it unless they just cut it down & kill it, & then even the root will come back to life! Isn't that beautiful? See how perfectly balanced it is? They just think it's a big hodge-podge of branches, but it's not.

5. EVERY SINGLE BRANCH HAS TO BE PERFECTLY DESIGNED & grow at the right place & in the right direction & the right weight, & branches on both sides of equal size & numbers & weights so the tree won't tip over. I mean, it weighs tons & tons‚ & look at it all stand up there balanced on one little trunk! It's like a ballet dancer dancing on one foot! Really! I mean it! With her skirt all spread out, perfectly balanced. Beautiful! It's just almost as beautiful as a woman!

6. I LOVE TREES! PTL! TYL! ONE OF GOD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL CREATIONS & THE MOST OBEDIENT! In some ways they're even more perfect than women because they never disobey & never displease the Lord. They're always obedient & always do just whatever the Lord tells them to do, in perfect balance & symmetry.

7. A TREE IS A VISION OF PERFECTION, the perfection of God's Creation, & it never falls unless man cuts it down or the Devil strikes it down or his storms blow it down. It always stands straight & strong worshipping & obeying the Lord & looking beautiful for all to enjoy, giving shade & shelter & sometimes fruit & food & some even clothing, think of that!

8. TREES CAN SUPPLY MAN'S THREE BASIC NECESSITIES: FOOD, CLOTHING & SHELTER. Isn't that amazing? An amazing, marvellous, gorgeous thing is a tree!—The most beautiful thing the Lord ever made outside of women, & women are like a tree. A good woman is like a tree, she gives a man food & clothing & shelter & beauty & love & children & obedience & pleasure & comfort & companionship, firm & strong & always reliable‚ well-balanced, symmetrical & beautiful & helpful & a blessing, just like a tree. PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ!

9. I WAS JUST LYING HERE LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW AT THAT BEAUTIFUL TREE thinking how beautiful & perfect it is & how it never disobeys the Lord but always grows just for His glory & according to His will & produces exactly what He has ordained it to produce, fruitful & flowering, strong & beautiful, fulfilling its mission in life just like we're supposed to. PYL! Hallelujah! TYJ!

10. LORD HELP US TO BE LIKE TREES, PLANTED STRONG IN THY EARTH & nourished with the water of Thy Word & fertilised with the food of Thy very body. Lord, you're like the Earth in which we grow & on which we stand & depend & without Whom we could not exist. PTL! Hallelujah! TYL! Help us to be strong, strong & true like trees growing for Thy glory, fruitful & helpful for others, obedient & performing the mission for which You've ordained us, to grow & bear fruit for Thy glory & to be a blessing to man. PYJ! TYL!

11. HELP US TO BE THY TREES AS YOU SHOWED US ONCE IN ONE OF THOSE FIRST VISIONS, first just little tiny trees here & there, & then finally a mighty forest‚ the greatest in all the World! TYJ! PYL! Hallelujah! What a picture! There we are, Honey‚ we're the Lord's trees, His growing forest, a mighty boon to man & a glory to God! Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! Amen, amen, amen! Wasn't that beautiful? ILY! (Sings: )

I know that I shall never see,

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed,

Against the Earth's sweet flowing breast!

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray.

A tree who may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair.

Upon whose bosom snow has lain,

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree!

12. THAT'S A PERFECT ENDING, THAT BEAUTIFUL INSPIRED POEM BY JOYCE KILMER. I've loved that song ever since I was little `cause I always loved trees. PYJ! TYL! We ought to know more about trees‚ we ought to know more about different kinds of trees, about the shapes of their leaves, how to recognise the different kinds of trees & what they are & what they can do. Just think, they furnish so many things for man—food, clothing & shelter in the wilderness.

13. THE FIRST PIECE OF CLOTHING MAN EVER WORE WAS A FIG LEAF, & a fig is from a fig tree. And some of the finest cloth is linen‚ & linen is made from flax which comes for a flax tree. And of course lots of shelters are made from trees, from the little thatched huts of the poor to the mighty chateaus of the rich, made from trees. Food, clothing & shelter.

14. IN FACT‚ ONE OF THE MOST DELICIOUS NATURAL SWEETENERS which we have never really mentioned in the Letters is maple syrup & maple sugar made from the sap of the maple tree. The maple tree is the national emblem of Canada, the maple leaf. There's some other country‚ I think, that even has a tree on its flag as its national symbol, as a symbol of might & power & growth & usefulness & beauty. Trees are wonderful! TYJ! Hallelujah. (Mexico & Lebanon?)

15. I DON'T THINK THE WORLD COULD EVEN GET ALONG WITHOUT TREES. They make millions of houses out of them, billions of houses! And they provide all kinds of fruits. How many fruits could you name that come from trees, fruit tees? Almost all fruits come from trees‚ except berries, & they come from little small vines or bushes. So nearly all fruit comes from trees, & most nuts come from trees.

16. (THAT WOULD BE A GOOD PROJECT FOR THE CHILDREN TO DO, a good thing for them to study, how many things come from trees that are useful to man.) Why haven't we ever said anything about maple sugar & maple syrup? In some of those cold Northern countries that's the only sugar they have. In the old pioneering days they got their sweet from the maple tree. Maple syrup is delicious! Mmm! Makes me hungry for good old pancakes right now!

17. IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE TREES THERE WOULD BE NO SHADE, & if there was no shade, that means a lot of the brush & shrubbery couldn't grow & animals wouldn't find a habitat, & the soil would wash away & become a barren desert just like it has in a lot of places when man cut down all the trees. It just became a barren desert, a wilderness which couldn't even support life. (You can hardly have life without trees. Trees are an absolute necessity to both the life of man & animals.) Praise God!

18. HOW MANY THINGS CAN YOU THINK OF THAT YOU USE EVERY DAY THAT COME FROM TREES? Look all around you in your room & see how much comes from trees. Nearly all your paper, books, newspapers, our magazines, nearly all paper products are made entirely out of trees. Tissues, toilet paper, everything made of paper comes from trees. That's one thing they haven't found a synthetic to replace it is wood fiber for paper. It still makes the best paper. And they're cutting down whole forests just to make newspapers.

19. TREES ARE ONE OF GOD'S GREATEST GIFTS TO MAN & we could hardly live without trees. Wouldn't you like to be like a tree? God said that you'd be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. (Psalm One:)

20. "BLESSED IS THE MAN THAT WALKETH NOT IN THE COUNSEL OF THE UNGODLY, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; & in His law doth he meditate day & night.

21. "AND HE SHALL BE LIKE A TREE PLANTED BY THE RIVERS OF WATER, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; & whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

22. "THEREFORE THE UNGODLY SHALL NOT STAND IN THE JUDGMENT, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." But we who love the Lord & are useful, strong & fruitful & beautiful are like trees!)

23. —ARE YOU LIKE A TREE?

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family