A child and his father are walking hand in hand
Along a quiet country road, and they come upon a tree
The child asks permission to climb the tree
To which his father softly replied “No”
As they are passing the tree
The child lets go of his father’s hand and starts to climb it
When he gets to the first branch the child falls and scrapes his knee
The father bends down, cleans the wound
And softly asks him if he is fine
The child with tears in his eyes, looks into the father’s eyes
And sees a tear running down his face
The child asks for forgiveness for not obeying him
And the father forgives him
The child and the father resume walking, hand in hand, along the quiet country road
A teenager and his father are walking side by side
Along a quiet country road and they come upon a tree
The teenager asks his father if the tree would hold his weight
To which is father softly answers “No”
The teenager decides to climb it anyway
He gets to the third branch, and it breaks
He falls and breaks a leg
The father bends down and puts a splint in place
The teenager with tears in his eyes looks into his father’s eyes
And sees a tear running down his face
He asks his father for forgiveness for not listening to him
And as the father picks him up, he forgives his son
The father carries the teenager along the quiet country road
A man and his father are walking side by side
Along a quiet country road and they come upon a tree
The man asks his father if he can cut the tree down
His father softly asks him “Why?”
The man answers that he had hurt himself twice while climbing it
And he did not want anyone else to get hurt
The loving father looked into the man’s eyes and softly replied
“It was your decision to climb the tree that hurt you, not the tree itself”
And so, it is with God, the loving Father,
We, His children
And the tree of life.
Richard Boulay, March 2014
God, love, life 