CONSIDER THE SWEETGUM TREE
by Julie Lavender
I’ve watched for weeks as many of my Facebook friends have
bragged and boasted, gloated and crowed. Words and pictures piqued my jealousy.
It’s just not fair. Everybody else has
them …. why can’t I enjoy the splendor, too?
Beautiful fall foliage graces the posts of my
above-the-Mason-Dixon-line friends’ pages, and I am so envious.
I love autumn,
and in south-Georgia, the magnificence is delayed. We don’t get quite the color
changes that others do farther north, but what does arrive is wonderful.
This year, however, we’d suffered such a drought back at the
end of summer and beginning of fall that I was convinced the ambers and
crimsons and scarlets and dandelions wouldn’t arrive at all.
Yet, God didn’t fail to disappoint me with the beauty of
fall. In fact, I’m certain the colors are even more beautiful this year than
ever!
My anxious autumn wait reminds me of the sweetgum trees I
saw today on my walk near the river. The limbs, draped in exquisite colors,
will be bare soon.
But for now – they’re gorgeous. Star-shaped leaves droop in varying
shades of maroon to brilliant red to pale rose to mandarin to golden yellow...
The sweetgum tree produces a resin that is sometimes used
for chewing gum – hence the name – and also for medicinal purposes. The hearty
wood is a common source of hardwood and plywood.
In the springtime, the sweetgum’s nectar nourishes
hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths. And the seeds attract mourning doves, dark-eyed
juncos, Carolina wrens, sparrows, American goldfinches, cardinals, sparrows,
grosbeaks, pine siskins, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, wood ducks, red-winged
blackbirds, Carolina chickadee, blue jays, squirrels, chipmunks, and more.
Small, pale green flowers develop into spiky seed pods,
commonly called sweetgum balls.
The burr-like fruits hang from small stems.
Later in the year, the sweetgum balls dry up and fall to the ground and can
become quite the nuisance to hikers or to lawn enthusiasts.
The long-living sweetgum tree, some live well-over one
hundred years, doesn’t begin producing fruit until twenty or thirty years of
age.
That’s a long wait!
Yet, the sweetgum stands TALL and strong, year after
year, until that time, and then long after.
Wait. Not one of my favorite words most times. But so often,
the glory and splendor are worth the wait.
Are you in a season of waiting? Hang in there …. God has BIG plans, and it will most certainly be worth the wait!
Waiting is perhaps the most difficult part Ms. Julie. I think the world (society today) has conditioned us to want/expect instant gratification. That's why some folks stand and yell at the microwave to "Hurry up! and we get so upset at the drive-thru line at most fast food places. As for those "lovely" gumballs? We passed on three or four other homes when looking here in TX because they had sweetgum trees on them. Not a fan! :-) God's blessings ma'am; and enjoy the little bit of color left. It doesn't last long at all here in the south does it?
ReplyDeleteYes, I like sweetgum trees ... in someone else's yard!! haha Or in the woods where they look so beautiful! Waiting is very hard for me, J.D. - and I do believe we've become so accustomed to this instant gratification that it is very hard for us to wait for anything! Sometimes I think I'm getting better as I get older, and then sometimes, I think I'm getting even less patient!Thanks for joining the conversation! Blessings to you and Diane!
ReplyDeleteSuch lovely pictures, Julie! Thank you for sharing this beautiful remembrance of God's glory and creation. Our trees have dumped their leaves and winter has settled in. Oh, my--you've mentioned that word--WAIT! It's so hard, yet God is with us in the wait. And spring will come again--just as dependable as God's blessings.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Katherine, for your comment. Waiting is so hard, yet God never leaves us in our "wait" time. Those same trees that are bare in your neck of the woods and will be soon in my neck of the woods, with the wind we're experiencing the last couple of days, will yet again adorn themselves with green leaves in the spring! Our God is dependable indeed!
DeleteI like that wording, Katherine. "God is with us in the wait." Thanks for saying that.
DeleteShh...Don't tell JD, but I've been known to yell at microwaves.
ReplyDeleteThe Lord is not in a hurry, but we so often are. Thanks for the reminder that it's worth the wait for the will of God. Beautiful pictures. And I'm glad you took the time to enjoy the splendor. The wait produced this blog post too. Thank you.
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25 (NKJV)
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)
Rachel, my daughter and I like to watch the chick-flick, You've Got Mail, and one of the characters sticks her coffee in the microwave for thirty seconds and she yells at it to hurry, hurry, hurry!! We think that's hysterical .... and yet, so true of my impatience at many times!!! Thank you for your kind words and for reading! Blessings, and thanks for the "wait" verses. There's a reason most certainly that the word "wait" can be found in many places in His Word!!
ReplyDeleteI'm not fond of sweetgum trees for the reason of the spiky balls and they sprout up everywhere, but now that I know what they do for the birds I may change my mind and they do produce a beautiful color in the fall.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I'm with you, actually, and I tend to enjoy them "in the woods," rather than near my front or back yard!!! Those pesky sweetgum balls can make you twist an ankle if you're not aware they're underfoot!! But, they surely are beautiful in the fall, and, until researching for this post, I had no idea that many wildlife critters benefited from the tree! Thanks for joining the conversation! (I'm continuing to pray for your husband and his upcoming surgery!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for this walk through nature, Julie. Your photos and words beautifully illustrate one of the hardest parts of life for me. But they also remind me there is always a reason behind the waiting.
ReplyDeleteWaiting is so hard for me, too, Candyce!! I have a hard time seeing the reason, usually, and then ... the next time it happens to me, I sometimes have a hard time remembering that God's ways are higher than mine, and I am just as impatient as before. But ... I'm getting better; it's just still difficult! Thanks for joining the conversation!
DeleteI have a towering sweet gum in my yard. I'm attached to it even though it produces those sticker balls. It's the one tree that has survived what the construction workers buried when they built the house. It also produced little trees when my own attempts at planting tiny trees failed.
ReplyDeleteNow I have a new reason to admire her, my tree. She waited that long to produce fruit. I can wait with God for my own prayer requests. Thanks for that tidbit of knowledge and encouragement, Julie.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Katy!! What a sweet story! Waiting on God is difficult for me often, even when my head knows that His ways are always, always best!! And, I do remember some of the beautiful trees in your yard and neighborhood from the first conference! Several were really pretty with the fall foliage! Blessings, my friend!
ReplyDelete