The noun, rumination, means a deep considered thought about something.

My wife and I recently asked our neighbor if we could trim his evergreen tree which is located adjacent to the driveway to our garage, and between our two houses. The evergreen tree is about 40 feet tall, and its bottom branches spread so far in every direction that they blocked our visibility to the adjacent sidewalk as we would back out of our driveway into the street. This is a busy sidewalk where children ride their bikes and tricycles and neighbors walk their dogs. With the evergreen blocking our view of the sidewalk, we would need to drive very slowly out of our driveway to prevent a possible collision with someone on the sidewalk.

We were very blessed with the neighbor absolutely agreeing to let us trim the tree. In fact, our neighbor stood beside us as we cut the lower branches suggesting we could even cut higher (which we did do).

A few days after that tree was pruned, I noticed the tree “weeping” sap at each location where we removed a branch. I was curious why trees “weep” sap and found the experts state they “weep” to help prevent infection at the spot where the branch was located; sealing the opening with sap enabling the tree to heal.

As I thought about this, I reflection on how this is somewhat analogous to what happens when we go to the confessional. As we confess our sins, we remove those shortcomings from our lives, enabling us to see better how to act and reform our lives. Yet being human, we still need to fight the temptation to fall into the same sinful bad habit.

How do we protect ourselves from making missteps going forward? We do it through prayer and the reception of the special graces we receive in the Sacraments, most importantly the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

These graces strengthen us where we are weak. Amazing how nature help us see the help that God has given us in our lives.



By: Deacon Tom Gryzbek