The oak grows strong in contrary winds.
Peter Marshall, Prayers Offered by the Chaplain, 1949The pine stays green in winter . . . wisdom in hardship.
Norman Douglas
Companionship. Strength and wisdom! This flexible fast growing green pine has bent under the weight of winter. The slower growing brown leafed oak stands straight against the winds. Who is protecting whom? Surely their roots are entwined; surely they are supporting one another and enduring together. Usually pines grow up with pines and oaks fellowship with other oaks. How strange to find two such different trees, most likely volunteers, growing up together in a wind swept field close by five old posts or tree stumps. There’s an untold story, a parable or an illustration, here for most of us. Mine would not be like yours, nor would yours be like mine.
