That one branch, that single limb

poem by:  Carole L. Haines

strolling in the field, beside the wooded place

a single limb was jutting out and hanging in my face

tempted, at first, to break it off, I reach, but then draw back

remembering a time that will soon come, when I will want to have …

that one branch, that single limb, and the little cones it bears

For a celebration beckons me, from a future time

reminding me of how I’ve used these branches to celebrate in kind

So I leave it grow and watch it sway, on windy Autumn Days

until  A Winter’s chill reminds me to seek it where it sways.

For it’s glorious smell, it’s vibrant green, it’s cones of little seeds

come in my house and decorate a graceful Manger scene.

It’s fragrance fills my home with joy and reminders that I too,

am to be a fragrance of My Lord all the long year through,

and it’s vibrant green reminds me of the life I have within

placed there by the Love of God, who came to die for me

It’s cones of seeds beckon me to reach out with that grace

and share the love of my dear Christ in every single place.

and so that one branch, that single limb, to many it may seem

just,  in the way, or perhaps, a mere inconvenience

but to me, it’s a reminder of all   my Christ has done for me.

and so we too, can view ourselves as an awkward little branch

perhaps we feel, we’re not much use, in this world so grand and vast

but God delights to confound the arrogant

by using little branches that no one would suspect

and so I wait and grow and bloom, for one day my God will reach

down from His heaven and use me to love,  encourage and teach

and I will decorate the world with His love, as the pine branch did for me