Roots

To teach a child morality

With no Base for its stand

Is like trying to plant a tree

On shores of shifting sand

Our eyes behold but half the tree

Though towering are its reaches

It is the Base we cannot see

Securing storm-tossed branches

The whole of moral law consists

Not only by instruction

But by a hidden measuring stick

That justifies law’s judgment

How can we teach a child of love

And yet deny its Giver?

Love has a Source man cannot prove

Without a Higher Power

How can we teach morality

Or fool-proof absolutes

And yet ignore the Deity

That gives the Law its roots?

© Janet Martin 

As I watch the wind bending the trees I marvel at their strength...

...the trunk never moves though the branches are thrashed in the gale.

And yet it is not the trunk which keeps it there. It is the part we cannot see.

The trees survival depends on the surety of the roots. If the roots are healthy and True the tree will stand.

It spawned a train of thought as I looked at my kids (snow day again) and I began to wonder how their 'roots' are developing. Will they hold fast in the storm's of life?