A pastor told of hiring a carpenter to restore an old farmhouse. On the first day when the carpenter was to report for work, he was an hour late. His tardiness, he said, was because he found that his electric saw was not working, and in addition, he had found a flat tire on his old truck.

     Nevertheless, he put in a full day's work. When he had finished, he got in his aged truck and turned the key in the ignition, only to find that the stubborn vehicle refused to start.

      Seeing the problem, the pastor offered to take the carpenter home so the tradesman got in the pastor's car. They engaged in friendly conversation on the way and soon arrived at the man's home. Before exiting the car, the carpenter invited the preacher in to meet his family. They both got out and started to the front entrance. 

     As they walked by a tree in the yard, he stopped for a second and touched the tips of several branches without comment. Entering the home, he kissed his wife and hugged his two small children. It was obvious that the family was close and quite happy.

     After visiting awhile, the pastor made his way to his car. As they passed by the tree again, the pastor said that he had noticed him touching several branches with both hands.  "Why did you do that?," asked the curious pastor.

     "Oh," said the carpenter, "that's my trouble tree. I know I can't help having trouble but I try to keep trouble out of my house as much as I can. When I come home each day, I touch the branches of the tree and symbolically leave my troubles on the tree. In the morning, I pick them up again. But, strangely, it always seems that when I am ready to deal with my troubles in the morning, I don't seem to have as many as I had the evening before."

     Talking about this to his church members, the pastor suggested that Christians could use Christ as the "trouble tree." Thus we Christians could begin each new day with the love, compassion, hope and courage Christ provides to each of us.

     The pastor also commented that we can leave our troubles with Christ and not have to pick them up again.

     ~Have a nice safe summer, Sean