Letter to my Daughters, #3 - Trees

Dear Lillian and Annie,

My favorite trees are Magnolias and Dogwoods. When I was a kid we would visit my grandmother on my dad's side, (Grandmother Hendley, from whom Lillian gets her middle name). She lived in Albany, Georgia, which had an environment favorable to the growth of both Magnolias and Dogwoods.

Grandmother Hendley had several massive Magnolias in her yard. Magnolias are fantastic climbing trees. They also have the sweetest and most beautiful flowers. The flowers are white with a big seed in the middle. The smell is absolutely tremendous, even when the flowers are fading.

Dogwood trees have beautiful flowers too. Some say the flowers represent the cross of Christ. There are four petals and each petal has a red tip at the end, symbolizing the blood at Jesus' head, hands, and feet. Even when the flowers fade, the tree is still beautiful.

As beautiful and incredible as the flowers are on both of these trees, the flowers only last for a few weeks each year. Then the flowers fade, wither, and fall. Yet the trees continue to grow and live on during the rest of the year. What is it that keeps the trees alive and growing throughout the rest of the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter? It is the roots and inner structure of the trees. Without them the trees would rot and die. The flowers only last for a season, but the roots sustain the tree forever.

The trees are an analogy for lasting love. Beauty is wonderful, (and indeed you are both beautiful), but it won't sustain a relationship. Romance is wonderful, but it will not sustain a marriage in the Winter seasons of a relationship. What makes and keeps a relationship is commitment, character, and a relationship with Jesus Christ, (i.e. the roots). You can get wrapped up in all the flowers of Spring, the infatuation and passion of a relationship, but the flowers eventually fall and the early passion will fade. What lasts is committed love, character, friendship, laughter, and walking with Jesus Christ.

Let it not be said that your mother and I do not love each other or that we don't have passion and delight in one another. My point rather, is that our relationship and marriage are not grounded in these things. There are seasons of great joy and romance in a marriage, (Spring), and also seasons which are tough, long, and barren, (Winter). Your mother and I have based our relationship not on the flower of romance, (which is great), but on the lasting roots of the love of Christ and truth of the Bible. My prayer for you both is that you would have relationships grounded in what is lasting so you could enjoy the flower of romance, rather than have relationships grounded in beauty and romance yet have little in the way of character, faithfulness, and committed love.

I love you both.
Love your Daddy,