Leona Choy
"Phew! It's hot and dry!" Green Tree shrugged the dust from his leaves
with a swish. "Time for another drink." The ground crackled as he
stretched his roots imperceptibly deeper under the earth toward
riverbank. "Ah!"
Parched Shrub, drooping nearby, shook his brittle branch stubs and
glared up at Green Tree whose leaves were verdant and healthy. "You
think you're somebody special, don't you? If you were down here close to
the hot sand you wouldn't act so high and mighty."
"We're in it together, friend," replied Green Tree surprised. "My roots
are in the same desert. Besides, I'm nearer the sun and that's even hotter."
"Well, I'm waiting for Mortal Man to water me. He promised to come when
I needed him. He’ll probably arrive by Prosperity Bus," mumbled Parched
Shrub.
“How late is he?”
"Oh, a few months, give or take a few weeks."
"We live in Uninhabited Salt Land," reminded Green Tree. "Prosperity Bus
stopped taking the Good times route a long time ago."
Parched Shrub was silent for a long while. Only his wheezing breath
broke the stillness of the desert. Finally, "How do you get along so
well through the drought? I even see fruit up there in your dense foliage."
"My hope is in Lord God," replied Green Tree. "He told us when He
planted us that we shouldn't trust in Mortal Man. He said He would look
after us Himself and never forsake us. He...."
"There you go being preachy," coughed Parched Shrub. "You Green Trees
are all alike. You think you're better than everyone else--some kind of
special apples in God's eye."
"That's not true. Lord God doesn't play favorites or keep secrets. He
told all of us Greenery Things, you included, where to send our roots."
"Aw, I just don't trust 'im. I gave up that stuff when I was little."
You're still little," observed Green Tree, not intending offense. "I
started out your size. You too can...."
"Preaching again?" Parched Shrub pretended to be angry, but one hot tear
trickled down his bare branch, splashed on the sand and rapidly soaked in.
Green Tree was moved with compassion. He bent his chlorophyll-laden
leafy branches low over Parched Shrub. "Come under my shadow, friend.
I'll shelter you from the hot sun. It's really not far under the desert
to stretch your own roots to Riverbank. You can do it, I know you can.
Lord God pointed us in the direction of water."
Parched Shrub snuggled up under Green Tree's luxurious foliage. "You'd
help me? Even though I’ve made fun of you and turned away from Lord God
so many times? Do you think there's enough water for both of us?"
"Absolutely! Lord God said that rivers of living water, cool and pure,
flow nearby."
"Oh, I'm dying of thirst!"
"Come on then. Come to The Waters."
"Do you have to pay much?"
"Naw, Lord God paid for it. It's free now!"
"Let's go then," Parched Shrub's prickly stubs stirred with new hope.
"Don't leave me, though. Show me the way...."
**********************
A personified allegory based on Jeremiah 17:5-8 from various
translations and versions of Scripture. Also reflective of Psalm 1:1-6;
Revelation 22:17; Isaiah 55:1.
"Thus says the Lord, cursed is the strong man who trusts in mankind,
in frail, mortal man, and makes weak, human flesh his strength, and
whose heart and mind turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a
bush or stunted shrub in the desert, like a person naked and destitute,
with no hope for the future. He will not see when prosperity comes and
good times pass him by forever. But he will live in stony wastes, in
parched places in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitants.
But most blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope and
confidence are in the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the
water, along a riverbank, that extends its roots by a stream, and will
not be bothered when heat comes, nor anxious in a year of drought, but
goes right on producing luscious fruit."
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