Arbor Day is one of those holidays’ that has been a vague childhood memory for me.  As I reach back into the depths of my elementary school experience it seems familiar, yet honestly all I recall is that this celebration has got something to do with planting trees.  Sadly, I doubt that was all my teachers were attempting to impress upon us kids, but apparently I wasn’t really listening.  Perhaps living in a state where one cannot look outside any window without seeing at least one tree, if not dozens has diluted my appreciation.  Thanks to the “Google” age we live in I’ve had a refresher course on the subject.  I would have assumed this holiday began in a state like Oregon or Washington where trees abound.  That is not the case.  Instead, a journalist and politician named Julius Sterling Morton, who had a passion for agriculture, began the movement of planting trees in his state of Nebraska.  Morton felt that his states environment and economy would benefit highly from such a drawn awareness, so he began to spread his gospel of tree planting.  On the 1^stArbor Day in April 1872 a million trees were planted!  Morton’s good work has spread throughout the world and is now celebrated all around the world in places like Australia, China, Bulgaria, and Namibia… another fact of which I was completely un-aware. 

This year I’m going to remember Julius Sterling Morton and although my tiny backyard isn’t condusive to another tree, I may just plant one someplace else… or at least pay homage to the ones I have.  Every morning I wake up in my home made of wood, set my feet on hardwood floors, watch the TV I’ve nested in a beautiful wood entertainment center, and put my books and clothes away in containers crafted at the hands of carpenters employed thanks to the tree.  In fact, the nature of my livelihood and the opportunity to help others to buy and sell homes is all thanks to the trees.  What a great invention the God of the universe had in mind when He gave us this gift!