Our Oleander Trees

Our backyard is surrounded by oleander trees.  They are great trees.  They provide greenery all year round.  And in Arizona, that is wonderful.  In the spring they burst with beautiful white flowers.  Some of our oleander trees have begun to bloom.  Others are laden down with buds.

Yesterday the wind was really blowing.  I looked into the backyard and saw some of our oleander trees bending under the weight of their heavily bud-laden branches.  I worried that maybe the wind would be too much for them and they would break.

They didn't.

And today, those trees are covered with beautiful white blossoms.

I thought about that, and, of course, compared it to our lives.  The winds will blow.  We're told that.  It is never if they will blow, but when. When we feel those winds in our lives or see them blowing in our children's lives, worries arise.

I think we often don't see our burdens as "buds"--something hard that is going to produce something beautiful.  Instead, they feel like heavy burdens that are going to break us when those winds come.  But, if we are patient and steadfast, the winds stop and the blossoms come.