Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday March 31, 2011

When I was a kid my stepfather used to take the clan along with cases of beer to Wye Mills Maryland, to go crabbing, which in and of itself was something to remember. On many occasions, with bushel baskets full of crabs, the beer gone, the stepfather in a stupor would take on a mood for things more lasting, and we would stop and visit what became a close friend to me. So close that I recall shedding a tear when my childhood friend passed back in 2002.

Due to my mental condition I have taken a fancy to writing about nuts, particularly acorns, and thus I was impressed all the more when I read again very early in the morning the brief history of an acorn that fell into the ground and germinated around the year of our Lord 1540, 71 years before the Bible.

The nut grew to legendary proportions both as to size and longevity, with the trunk measuring 31 feet 10 inches. My friend, known as The Wye Oak in Talbot County Maryland finally succumbed to a violent thunderstorm when it was around 460 years old.

I found a sense of strength when I was around the tree as a kid, I suppose due to its enormous size, longevity and beauty, and somehow the idea that if a tree could live and grow as it had, somehow I would get home safe in spite of a thoroughly stewed stepfather.

Later in life, the Lord Jesus took me in and I discovered life as it is meant to be.

The Eastern Shore, as the area is known endures storms like you have never seen in other parts of the state. That The Wye Oak endured and was made strong via the assaults of many a storm is a matter of fact, yet for 460 years the acorn, the nut grew to an icon of majestic beauty.

The "nut" Larry Lilly, hopes the same is true in my life as I grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't sit around moping about my life in the home of a drunkard, nor of the unmentionable acts along the way. I do thank the Lord that He takes the hard knocks, some near atrocious to be sure and uses them to make me stronger than the pain of life.

Helen Keller wrote:

"The richness of the human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome."

Please do not get the idea that I am worshiping trees, though I do worship Jesus The One who made them. I admit to often catching a glimpse of the Wye Oak in my mind's eye when I join in singing Van Dykes grand words, "Joyful Joyful," set to the music of Beethoven's marvelous music.

John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with Credit

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