Evergreen boughs bear clusters of beautiful pale blue berries all through the winter. In twilight their color is accentuated, a heavenly hue. Branches hang low at the point of the berries heaviest abundance.
Arctic gales blow hard across the months of this season, shearing the blue orbs, spilling them to the ground like pearls from a broken string. The female Cedar loses the tiny bits of her adornment with every gust of wind, every icy freeze, and every pelting rain.
The loss does not diminish the value or the character of this tall spire. She extends her branches with or with out their pale blue adornment. Creatures – winged, footed, or slithering perch, burrow, and huddle within its massive frame. Standing sure, standing strong, standing quietly across the years; simply offering the gentler gifts of refuge, shade, and shelter.
Prudently placed in the flood plain of frequently overflowing creek beds, the voraciously thirsty Cedar absorbs the over abundance of flooding waters following every storm. This towering life quietly serves her divinely designed purpose within the ecological community through the workings of her quiet, unseen, inner life.
Season after season I walk past her. A guardian at her post. Season after season, God’s creation provides examples for human living. Here, through a living tree, the words of 1 Peter are given roots. Her berries are attractive, yet transitory. Cedar's deeper life contains the greater portion of her beauty and purpose. A living creation to emulate.
Let your adornment be your inner self,
with a lasting beauty
of a gentle and quiet spirit.
1 Peter: 3-4
*The Cedar Berry tree of the southwest is technically a species of Juniper.
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