While I was walking I noticed a really large tree. I slowed my pace a bit so that I could marvel at it's immensity. It's trunk was large enough that I couldn't have even come close to wrapping my arms around it. It's branches reached towards the heavens. They were plentiful, thick and covered in leaves. As I glanced at it I thought about how it once was just a little seed, only an inkling of hope for a possible future tree. I thought about the storms, frigid winters, and possible diseases that it had survived in order to have gotten so big. I realized that the road way which ran beside it and the sidewalk on it's other side weren't a reality when this giant tree first broke through the soil. I was certain it witnessed the building of each of the houses in the neighbor hood. That tree would have seen hundreds of other trees spring forth from the ground only to have died or been cut down. But it's survived. Lifetimes have lapsed but that tree is still there. Life is such a miracle.
The giant tree only got me to thinking about my life, about all the lives that came before me. Countless numbers of people had to survive famines, disasters, diseases, and everything life could throw at them or else I wouldn't be. Hundreds and thousands of battles were fought but my ancestors survived long enough so that I could be. Every single grandparent in my history, from the very beginning of time had to find each other and bring forth that one specific life which led up to mine in order for me to be. If any of the ocean faring individuals in my family tree had wavered, had decided against the journey across the sea I wouldn't be. My parents, out of all the billions of people on the planet chose each other and then there came me. Life is a miracle. The very existence of every single person on this planet, in their individuality and uniqueness, the fact that they are the one and only them there could EVER be and that they made it, they were given life, is nothing more than miraculous.
I continued walking. My feet found their way to a sidewalk covered in brilliant yellow leaves. A vibrant yellow tree reached is beautiful branches overhead. The sun's rays beamed down between each of the radiant leaves left on the tree. A warm amber light, as if I'd entered a cartoonish colorful bubble surrounded me. Each of the wonderfully fragrant leaves created a musical ruffling sound beneath my feet. I experienced a perfect moment. One yellow tree had survived decades in order for that moment to be. I have been blessed with life and a long line of ancestors who each fortunately survived up until that next critical individual came into being otherwise there would have been no me walking under a yellow tree. It seems that with all the billions and trillions and gazillion events which had to occur so that one person could come into being taking life for granted is the greatest of injustices.
Life is a miracle and God is good.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you... Jeremiah 1:5
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