There it was. Just a spot of bright red on the ground, but it was enough; I smiled.
The spot of red had come in a flower unlike any I had seen before. Soon I was looking forward to seeing that spot of red every time I passed the corner. Some kid must have dropped that flower during a game, but still, it was there, and that’s what mattered. However, something happened over the next few days. The flower was joined by others until I was sure that it was not just the kids dropping flowers, but where did it come from? I hadn’t seen any flowering trees anywhere nearby, and there was no bush with those flowers anywhere on campus.
One morning I was overcome with curiosity, and I stopped to look around. I was determined to find where the flowers were coming from. I took in the possibilities. There is a Jackfruit tree to the left, with no flowers; there is a bush to the right, wrong flowers, but then I looked at the two trees in front of me. They grow so close together that I always thought that their branches were mixed and the different types of leaves were just lost in the green, but now that I looked closer, I noticed something. One tree looks normal; typical bark and green leaves covering spreading branches. However, the second tree is very different. The second tree has bark that is made of cone-shaped spikes, making it impossible to climb the tree without severe detriment to one’s health. The tree looks very pokey, but I had never looked for its leaves. And then I looked up. Above the green leaves of the normal-looking tree
stands a magnificent treetop. The pokey tree is very tall, and above everything else, it spreads its branches, not branches that are covered in leaves, but branches that are covered in these spots of red.
I could only stand there in wonder. If I would have just looked up before, I would have noticed that this tree that looks like a nightmare to climb is actually probably the most magnificent, most beautiful tree on campus.
As I look at my own life, I find that I really need to look up more. I walk around my life looking at the base of trees (people). Some people have soft bark; they look nice to climb. Others have normal bark; they just seem ordinary, but the last group of people have bark like this tree. They might appear as mean, ugly, or even outright cruel, but what happens when we look up? When we look up, we are able to see people as God sees them. If we were just to turn our eyes heavenward, we would find that the people that we see as the most distasteful are still children of God. God still loves them. That person who might seem so ugly to our human eyes is still crowned with the likeness of God, but how could we see that if we are just staring at the bark?
When I looked up, my whole perspective of that tree changed; instead of just being cool because of its defense mechanism, I now see it as the most beautiful tree on campus, all because I looked up. How much would our view of people change if we just looked up? If we just tried to see them how God sees them? Let’s try to look up more often!
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