The Old Pear Tree

by Dave.

When I was a boy, my parents moved the family from a small house near the city line to a large home out in the county.  It was a unique, quirky home located on several acres of property, and it would be home for me for much of my life.  It was a great place to grow up, and we had a dog, a cat and later added some chickens as well.  

A previous owner had planted a pear tree on the property and each September, it produced a crop of pears for us to enjoy.  As the years passed the tree began to look fragile and frail, and if a branch had too many pears on it, the branch would snap off.  We would enjoy a cottage cheese and pear salad, or my mom and I would take the pears and make pear sauce out of them (like apple sauce) and then we would freeze the sauce for use at a later date.

Back in 2011, our city in upstate NY experienced the fury of Hurricane Irene.  There was massive flooding and many trees and power lines were down across the region.  I remember looking out the window during the storm and watching an evergreen tree fall over in the yard.  When the storm was over, I went outside to inspect the yard and especially to see if the pear tree had survived.  There it stood in all its glory, undamaged.  I guess you can say I had become fond of that old pear tree.

In 2013, disaster struck.  My mother and I were watching the evening news, when alerts came on saying a tornado was in our area and to seek shelter immediately.  Before we could get to the basement for shelter, it began to rain like I had never seen it rain before.  I could not even see the road as it was that much.  After what seemed like an eternity,  suddenly, the storm was over and the sun was shining.  As my mom and I emerged from the basement, I had no idea what we had left.  The damage was staggering.  The house, storage building, and my car hadn't been damaged, but the garage had part of a tree on top of it (but it was the end of a tree so the garage was undamaged).  But the yard was another story.  Dozens of trees, all kinds of trees, had fallen.  Big, huge trees, smaller trees had been uprooted. A large, beautiful  evergreen tree that would have made a great Christmas tree had been struck by lightning and severed in two.  But, I was most interested in seeing if the old pear tree had survived.  How could it have, when there was so much damage and destruction?  But there it stood, again, undamaged by the storm. It would take many weeks to get the property cleaned up and teams of people had helped from the church.  

I guess one can say I learned some life lessons from that old pear tree, lessons like:

1.  Appearances can be deceiving.  What seemed so fragile and frail was actually tough as nails in the end.  In I Sam. 16:7 the Bible says "man looks on the outward appearance,, but God looks on the heart."

2.  Not to "judge a book by its' cover."  That's so easy to do, but Jesus had some things to say about that in the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew.

3.  When a storm hits in our lives, it can rain very hard, and we can feel like we will be flattened and drown from the storm.  God promised in Psalm 46:1 that He is a shelter in times of a storm.  He is our shield and rock in the turbulence of life.

There have been many times since the hurricane and then the tornado that I have recounted God's care and what I saw.  Although I have moved away from my beloved home now, there is something I have thought about many times.  I'll never forget:

                                                     THAT OLD PEAR TREE

---

About the Writer

Dave grew up in beautiful upstate New York and spent nearly 10 years in DC. Now he lives in South Carolina. He is another "your other brother" who believes in the power of encouragement to others (thanks, in part to his experiences) He has been to 49 states and seen the 50th.