Glory

There is the story of three trees which were talking among themselves about their future. The first tree said, “I’d really like to be made into a cradle so that a baby could be laid in me and I could support that new life.” The second tree said, “I’d like to be made into an ocean-going ship and be able to carry useful cargos all over the world.” The third tree said, “I don’t want to be made into anything else. I just want to stand here as a tree and point upward as a way of reminding men and women that there is a God in Heaven who loves them.”

At harvest time, the woodcutters came to the forest. As they cut down the first tree, one of them said, “We’ll make this one into a manger.” The tree protested: it did not want to become a feed-box for animals. But the woodchoppers made it into a manger and sold it to an…