Growing up on the east coast of the U.S., most of the trees that I ever saw were green; the exception, of course, being the white Birch trees. When I moved to California, I took up trail hiking. On my first major hike, I walked over a small rise and there, in front of me, I saw a tree glimmering in the sunlight. The leaves were a light greenish, but what struck my senses was the rest of the tree. It was bright RED! The sun shining on it made it look even more brilliant. I was in awe. My hiking buddy, a long time resident of California, continued along the trail without paying much attention to the tree. I, on the other hand, was frozen in my place. I didn’t even realize that trees could come in red. My buddy had gone around a corner and when he looked back, I was no longer with him. He turned around and walked back to me and asked if everything was alright. I pointed at the Manzanita and asked him, “Is that normal?” He then asked me what I meant by “normal.” I said, “The tree is red. Is it supposed to be red?” “Yeah, it’s a Manzanita tree,” he said. What a surprise that was; a red tree. Initially, I thought it was an optical illusion caused by the sunlight somehow creating a red hue. I was wearing sunglasses which I removed, thinking that they might be the culprit. Finally, I was left with nothing to blame, other than the fact that I had just discovered the only red tree in existence. My friend set me straight. This was a Manzanita. They are normal in this part of the world. There was no great discovery for mankind, only a personal discovery of something that had existed longer than I had, but which was unknown to me. I was about 26-27 years old. I had lived more than a quarter of a century without knowing that red trees inhabited this planet with me. Perhaps some of you are older than that right now and this is the first time that you’ve heard of the Manzanita.
Life is a journey of discovery. There is much that each of us will leave undiscovered about this life. What we do know may well be that which is left undiscovered by another. It seems sad at times that we leave this earth actually discovering only a fraction of that which there is to discover. It is almost enough to motivate someone to try and learn more than they are normally inclined to seek out. It also just might motivate us to look at what we do know and wonder how well we know it. Growing up in Maine, a place that has more trees per square mile than most, and working in the logging industry and even as a lumber grader in a saw mill, I believed that I knew a lot about trees. I did, but mostly about the trees that were indigenous to New England. California has Manzanita’s, but it is also home to the Giant Sequoia, the Ponderosa Pine, Palm trees and the Eucalyptus, just to name a few. I knew enough about trees to get by where I lived, but when I moved, I knew almost nothing about the trees there. I later traveled to South America and Japan, where I discovered even more exotic trees. I went to Hawaii and found out that pineapples grow on large plants. In my youth I had somehow thought that they grew on trees. In reflection I started out thinking that I knew a great deal about trees. Thirty years later I recognize that I know very little of what there is to know about the trees that cover this earth. I began my walk with God thinking that I knew much about Him after only a short period of time. Today, I feel I have only scratched the surface. There is much life and much God left to discover. Let’s get excited all over again about discovering both. Blessings!
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