En-Tree #8

I took so long to update, I figured a couple back to back ones would be the best thing to do.

We had a pool growing up. We didn't have a lot of the fancy stuff, like cable or satellite or a TV that wasn't a giant wooden box with the big knobs; but we had a pool. It was a standard, aluminum sided, above ground, 5 feet at it's deepest, with a homemade deck around it pool. I loved that dang pool. I love water (maybe that'll be my next "series" of blogs).

When I was younger, I would blow-up a balloon as full as possible, submerge it in the water, sink myself and then try and breathe underwater using the air from the balloon... it did not work. My mom informed me that I would need an oxygen tank to breathe underwater.

Through school and my PawPaw teaching me, I learned that "Them trees are where we get our oxygen. You cut 'em all down, we won't have anything to breathe!"

Trees take-in the CO2 (carbon dioxide) that we breathe-out and use it to make food for themselves and make O2 (oxygen) for us.

A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 lbs./year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support 2 human beings.

The trees take the air that we have used up, the junk we're done with, that we can't use anymore... and make the thing we need, possibly, most of all.

You can live without food for 4 to 6 weeks; at most, you can live 10 days without water; you can only live, at the very most, 7 minutes without oxygen, but most cases show that anything after 3 minutes causes severe brain damage.

YWHW takes our junk, the stuff that we've used up, takes all the stuff that used to be good but we've turned into something else... He takes it, transforms it, makes it new, and gives us what we need the most.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes, the oil of gladness
instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
--Isaiah 61:1-3