What do National Poetry Day, Arbor Day, and Psalm 148 have in common? Let me tell you!
It’s a beautiful day here in Western North Carolina today. The trees are all fully leafed out and everywhere you look there is glorious green. I sit at my bedroom window looking out on the massive Norway spruce that was once the Bradley family’s Christmas tree, as well as a new volunteer maple which is now big enough to offer privacy. What a fitting way to celebrate Arbor Day.
This morning I read Psalm 148 whose theme is “Let all creation praise and worship the LORD.” After the command in verse seven to “Praise the LORD from the earth,” there is a list which even mentions the trees in verse nine. “Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars.”
It isn’t hard for me to believe that even the trees praise the LORD. Their beauty, strength, usefulness, and so many other things all shout glory to the Creator.
Besides being Arbor Day today this is also National Poetry Month. So, in celebration of Arbor Day and National Poetry Month, I offer you this poem by Joyce Kilmer, a man who gave his life for our country in World War I.
Trees
By Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.