This week I’m sharing a poem I wrote a few years ago. This one was inspired by Proverbs 13:12; Hope deferred makes the heart sick but when the desire comes it is a tree of life (NKJV).

Tree of Life

One thing I have found is that God often means

Something different in His Word than the various things

I think it should mean as I read

And I’ve wondered aloud whether God really cares

As He rarely sees fit to answer my prayers

In the ways I feel that I need

Like the Tree of Life that desire should be

Is not the very same Tree that I see

As I confess His Word and I stand

For it’s my wants and desires I expect will grow

And bear fruit in my life even though I do know

Something different could come from God’s hand

How difficult then to give up my own schemes

And live for the far more beautiful dreams

My Father is dreaming for me

I long to know Life’s Tree for all that it is

Not my desires but all that are His

And become the green branch He wants me to be

I strive to leave behind all the things that I’ve thought

To press into the Life His Precious Blood bought

And to rest in His wonderful shade

And as He chops down my shriveled, gnarled, old tree

Behold, at last, I can finally see

The True Tree of Life God has made