An Oak Tree in a Graveyard

May 4, 2025

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight..."
~ Philippians 1:9 NIV ~

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight..." (Philippians 1:9 NIV)

It was many years ago. I was still a young man with nothing better to do than drive around with his friends on a Saturday exploring old back roads here in the mountains of my home. We found an old, winding gravel one that curved up the side of a mountain. When we reached the top, however, there was nothing there but an old, abandoned graveyard.

We got out to look at it. The last person buried there dated from the 1940's. But there were some graves from the 1800's. A few gravestones had fallen over from neglect and a few of them were so eroded from the years that you could no longer read the names on them. It saddened me seeing this. I wondered if someday I too would end up buried in a forgotten grave with no one alive remembering who I was.

As I stood up and got ready to go, though, I saw something that lifted my depressed spirit and brought joy to my sad heart. There at the very top of the mountain just outside the graveyard stood a massive, towering Oak tree. Its branches seemed to stretch towards the heavens and around it a dozen smaller Oaks were growing, most likely from the acorns that had fallen from this one. I looked at it for a moment and smiled. I thought about how that Oak tree had started as a single acorn but then had grown into something so beautiful and had given so much back to the Earth. I thought too that maybe I could be an Oak tree in my own life, do a lot of good and plant a lot of acorns before I left this world.

In this life every kind thing we do, every good word we speak, and every bit of love we share is an acorn we plant. And in the end these acorns will grow into something more beautiful than we can ever imagine. Take your place then in God’s garden of Love. Plant well and watch your trees grow. They will last far beyond your life here into eternity.

Joseph J. Mazzella

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