"Our tree"

"Our tree"

Is this sorrowful feeling a warning?

This breaking a limb from my precious oak tree?

It was such a joy to watch it grow, my wonderful family tree...

I treasured it more than words could tell, 

This 'three branched' tree from my loved one to me...

'Twas a symbol- a branch for each "little blessing" that came our way.

Today my tears are falling for one branch, (the largest), was taken away...

But still I can say-"it is better to have had and lost, than never to have had"

For God gives the life to both tree and man...

Clara E Whitney, June 8, 1943, my grandmother....

I found this poem this past month written by my grandmother...it must have been written about the time my father-the oldest/largest- graduated and left to try to enlist in the military...or went away to college..(he was turned down for the military ...which was always a disappointment, but he had grand stories of the trip to try to enlist...a bunch of country boys in the city.)...

This poem just reaffirms to me how each generation of mothers are so similar...we feel pain, joy, wonder, closeness to our children through their various joys and trials of life...

How was it when the first baby was born ?  When Eve held her first child...Sarah finally held her son....Noah and his wife held theirs  before the flood which destroyed so much....or Hannah held her much prayed for son, Samuel ....or Ruth, the widow, blessed with another marriage to have her first child.....or Bathsheba feeling at the loss of hers....or Elizabeth, waiting many years for John....or Mary, told by an angel about her baby and his heritage and later, on the cross....or Eunice , watching her son, Timothy, go out into the world, pastoring....

We all hold those babies, no matter how many, close to our hearts, both physically and emotionally ....even when they grow up, leave home....they are "close".. Loved, prayed for, cared for from afar....

Thank YOU for mothers, for the privilege of being a mother, a blessing beyond words....

Genesis 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. 

Ruth 4:16-17 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. 

1 Samuel 1:20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.” 

John 19:25-27 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.