Crooked and Wild Tree of Tribulation

I've been thinking a lot about trees lately. Because of two major storms our town has experienced, the look of our trees has changed. The tornado in May 2006 took the tops of the trees in the park and the cemetery. There weren't beautiful trees anymore, but trunks with some spiky branches and very little foliage. Luckily, I was out of town for the "Father's Day Storm" of 2008. A friend called and told me it looked like winter, cause all the leaves were blown off the trees. When I drove back into town, it seemed like I had walked through the closet door in the Chronicles of Narnia. It didn't even seem like my town. That was when I really began to notice trees. Some were blown, or cut, totally down; some only partially, leaving them terribly misshapen. Some had new growth that looked totally abnormal.
I never even realized how important they were until they were gone or not normal looking. I began to notice trees all over town and in other towns that I visited. A friend told me that she felt the worst part of the storm damage was that she lost a huge oak tree that she and her husband had planted when they moved into their house. She knew she wouldn't live long enough to watch a tree grow that big again. Trees were part of everyone's lives for a while. Either a tree blew down, possibly on part of your house, or blocked your street, or you had a million branches in your yard to pick up.
My Sunday School teacher recently quoted Eric Sauer during one of our lessons. "

The peaceable fruit of righteousness grows on the apparently crooked and wild tree of tribulation. This heavenly fruit as to its character is “righteousness” and as to its taste, “peace”. That quote made me see trees in a whole new light. No longer were they just stupid looking trees. They were the strong, the survivors. They remind me of my righteousness. Living a christian life sure isn't easy, and I am not very good at it most times. Many twists and turns and tribulations have made me stronger. I can understand things now that I couldn't understand years ago. I guess that is why they say "working out your salvation". I also understand peace so much more now than I did years ago. I have peace even through tribulations. So now, when I look at a tree, I look at the twists and turns and tribulations it has faced. The more "stupid" it looks, the more I know how strong it is to have survived. The same is true for me! We will have "tornados" and "hail storms" in our lives, and sometimes we might break, but keep hope. There will be new growth!