THE DOGWOOD TREE

Another first for me yesterday. Before I go into that let’s go way back to 1989. My parents and my sister and I had lived in this tiny town south of Minden LA. I’ve mentioned this before but just wanted to remind y’all. My parents got a hardship thing at the school board every year for my daddy to take us to school in Minden since that is where he worked.

So we got this hardship approved every year until my 6th grade year. (Since my sister was going into high school they allowed her to continue to go to school in Minden.) They said that I had to transfer to the school in my district. I was heart broken!! I had to leave all of my friends behind. It was at a time when my class of students would be moving to a new school which combines all of the 6th graders in Minden to one school. So not only was I being left out but they were making friends that I didn’t know. It was really hard for a pre-teen. Yes, I made new friends too but I was jealous of my old friends new friends. If you can follow that…

Even though I had made some new friends, I was still the new girl, and red headed at that… so I got picked on relentlessly. I even had prank callers calling my house saying really really ugly things. (They didn’t know my dad though. He fixed up a device on the receiver that would record all of the calls. He did this for evidence purposes. He should have been in the FBI or something.)

Back to my story. After 2 years at my new school Mom and Dad decided to sell our house and move to Minden. They did this for several reasons but mainly so that I could go to school in Minden. It came time for school to start for the new year and Mom and Dad still had not found a house they felt comfortable in or whatever, so we rented a house. It was quite comical that in this house you could hear the radio station through the phone lines. This radio station was just a few doors down the road. So in one house dad had it rigged to record and the rent house we could hear recordings. Lol.

Finally right before Christmas Mom and Dad had found us a house to live in. When we moved in they had 100 trees cut out of the yard. No joke!! So that was my house through high school and college and young adulthood until I got married.

Mom still lives there to this day, however, it looks a smidge different. Fast forward to 2000, Easter Sunday. Hershel, Megan, and I had spent the day with Mom and Dad and not long after lunch was cleaned up, the skies opened up and dropped 3 tornadoes on top of Mom and Dad’s house. Dropping almost all of the rest of the trees and taking part of the roof. The tornadoes even took all of the plants that Mom and Dad had planted the day before. There were 3 trees left: 1 fig tree, 1 pear tree, and 1 dogwood tree. This dogwood stood tall and proud crowned with white azaleas all around the whole thing. Last year it started to die and Mom asked if Hershel could take it down.

Yesterday, I used a chain saw for the first time and it was to cut the precious dogwood. This shouldn’t be a sad thing right? Oh but it is because I’m a very sentimental person and that part of me knows that my sweet daddy took great care of that tree for many years. The Lord spared that tree. What is the significance to that? Well, the dogwood flower is compared to Jesus on the cross. Each flower has 4 petals on them the tips of each petal is touched with a brownish stain color resembling the blood on Jesus’ head, both hands, and feet.

As we get closer to Easter, you will likely see the dogwoods bloom. Take notice of the flowers and the petals. The Easter bunny and stuff is fun and all but let’s not forget the real reason for Easter.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have ever lasting life. “