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When old Joe Gilliam began
digging that hole in his front yard, out there close to the street,
neighbors watched and wondered. When he got his grandson to help him
carry the shade tree sapling from his pickup to the hole, people
nodded.
Mystery solved. Old Joe’s planting a tree.
After removing the root mass from the five-gallon pot, the grandson
disappeared and Old Joe was left to care for the baby tree. He
carefully spread the tiny feeder roots out and tucked them in with
soil. Then he packed more dirt around the tree’s base and soaked it
well with the hose.
No one else saw anything odd in Joe planting that tree, either, but
Joe’s been retired now going on 20 years. He’s old and getting more
frail each year. By the time that sapling gets large enough to give
homes to squirrels and birds and shade to neighbors and a resting
place for dogs, Joe will have been long gone.
Planting a tree is an affirmation of faith in the future. It is a
gift to those yet unborn. It is a legacy of goodness, an old man’s
prayer.
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[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
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