Blue Jeans and Oak Trees...and other Random Thoughts

I am all about blue jeans.

I've been perplexed at myself for years. I am a fashion reject. I don't understand fashion at all. I love looking at the way other women dress, but I have never been able to be fashionable myself. I've tried to make myself fit into what I perceived to be the typical female mold. You know, grace, charm, social refinement, fashion, trinkets, painted nails, high heals, beauty, etc... We're suppose to love all of that, right?

I admit it is fun to dress up on occasion, but seldom is preferable, for me. I feel most like, "me," when I'm wearing blue jeans. Faded, worn in blue jeans characterize me the best. Levi's are my favorites, comfortable, stain resistant...and they last a very long time. Longevity and dirt resistance is a must in my existance. (Remember, not only do I have three boys to chase after, but I was raised with three brothers. I suppose I was a tomboy, though it was not necessarily an inborn trait. I was a tomboy out of necessity.)

Flowers are so beautiful, graceful and sturdy too. This one withstands temps in excess of 95 degrees. Rather than wilting, the face tilts towards the sky...

I've always wondered, "Why can't I be like the other girls?" Why isn't painting fingernails fun for me? I don't like shopping. I despise finger nail polish; I always smudge it and it never looks nice. Dresses are very uncomfortable. I won't mention pantyhose. Who invented those?

I am decidedly un-flowery. While I love to dance and was able to be quite graceful in my youth (those days are long gone), I would rather be hiking up a mountain, wrestling with my son, or repeling down a waterfall.

I'm not very pretty, though neither am I completely plain. If I'm not a flower, than I would say I am more like an Oak tree, solid and rooted.

This is a young Oak. I found it in my yard the week we moved into our new home 14 years ago. It was as tall as the chain link fence here (about 3.5 feet) in the picture. It had been neglected and had two stump like appendenges growing from it's base. I tried my darndest to kill this tree. I thought it was a "weed," tree. But I didn't own a saw sufficient to do the job. So I pruned it back as far as I could and hoped for death. Every so often I would try again to kill it. But nothing I did worked. I did manage to get rid of the ugly stump appendages and then I forgot about it. I began looking at it again about four years ago. What I gazed up on was truly beautiful. I clipped back branches so that they would never be in danger of toppling the fence. However, during the summer of all those nasty hurricanes, I thought we would lose this tree. Interestingly, it survived, despite being in the windiest part of the yard. It took the full hurricane force winds. It was lovely afterwards, untouched and impervious to the disaster which sliced through my paint job on the house and deposited water pockets "inside," the paint. My son Sam and I decided to identify this hearty tree and were surprised to find that it is likely a White Oak and may grow to be 100 feet tall.

Over the years, I've asked God, "Why can't I be more like the other girls?" Recently, the Lord has begun to reveal the answer to me. If I had been like the other girls, I may have been beaten down by life's storms. My petals would have been torn and my stem would be broken. Being a flower would have been unsuitable for my circumstances. As an Oak tree, I was given strength ,spunk, determination, drive and perseverence to the extreme. Then, when God's appointed time came, I trusted Christ and He came into my heart, becoming one with my countenance. I've learned to surrender to the gales of God's will and allow life's breath to drive through my branches. God has made me exactly as He planned. He purposed me to be an Oak.

Some people are purposed to be beautiful and dazzling flowers. They too, have strength to carry the cross that the Lord has prescribed for them. They are amazing people, whom God uses to His glory. We don't need to compare ourselves with others. We are what God purposed us to be. We can celebrate our diversity as a blessing from God! We can embrace the gift that God has given us in our personalities and experiences.

We can be content. Oak trees and Sunflowers are both beautiful!