Ruby for Women, May, 2013

The Glory Trees

by Sharon L. Patterson I look for them just after the last major blast of winter in Round Rock, Texas where I live. My wait each year is a bit varied, but usually sometime right before mid-March, prior to the outbreak of the much anticipated bluebonnets, I peer down the street to find the first glimpse of spring’s certain arrival. Suddenly, my insides start sensing a great joy…the glory trees are about to bloom!

Vacant limbs of trees noted for their perfect shape reveal gorgeous white clusters amidst tiny green leaves. You probably call these by their common name, “pear trees”, but I call them “the glory trees.” If you ask my almost three year old grandson who visited me recently, he now calls them the same thing.

We even made up a game to find the most glorious ones. How delightful to hear his sweet voice from the car seat behind me as we drive, “Grannah, look, a glory tree!”

There are many beauties of spring and thanks to the dedicated passion of Lady Bird Johnson, a former First Lady, Texas is especially blessed with blasts of color all along our highways and byways. Fields light up with fire-fly yellows, and Indian sunset reds; roadways and embankments display princely purple and blue patches. Yes, our wildflowers are incredible. Most Texas children have photos their parents took of them sitting in a blanket of bluebonnets. But for me, as much as I adore my state’s awesome fame of color, it is the glory trees I love most.

The trees remind me of God and His glory, hence the name I have given them.

The bursts of sudden white clusters light up the heart, and take one’s breath away. No matter what is happening in my life at the time, God’s promise of eternal glory breaks in upon my earthly moment as all attention is drawn to the beauty my eyes are beholding. Immediately, prayer rises from my spirit even as smiles spread across my face: “Oh Lord, what majestic splendor you have revealed! I don’t just feel joy, I am overjoyed!” It is a “more than” moment; it is special reminder of the Creator’s handiwork to me and in me.

We Christians bear the glory of God in these earthen vessels much like the once vacant limbs of the pear trees bear the glory of the promise of spring in the buds that will flood the world for a special time with intensely white flowers. Then, just as suddenly as they bloomed, the flowers will fall off and the green leaves will mature and then fade into the greens of the trees around them.

You will know the trees then mainly by their distinct shape. Winter will come and all you will see is the trunk and the bare limbs just as all other trees affected by that season. But one distinct day, the stunning display of the incredible blooms will reappear and you will know them by their glory.

So, if you are as privileged as I am to be where there are pear trees in the spring, won’t you join me in celebrating the glory trees! Better still, if you are one of God’s glory trees, may He openly display His glory to the world through you!

65