Cantwell: Infant bears witness to Christ

link Pat Cantwell

I t was nearly sunset in Tennessee. I was so excited to see again the most beautiful tree I had ever seen.

The tree grew on the top of a small steep hill, exactly in the middle of the hill. It was so tall its branches spread out like a canopy covering the entire top of the hill.

As I approached I felt like I was entering a cathedral whose vaulted ceiling showered down silence and peace.

The trunk was a massive 14 feet in diameter, which calculates to an age of 200 years. I just stood in awe that the Lord had preserved this tree for me.

You see lately, I had noticed a growing feeling of anxiousness in myself. I know it relates to a new habit of watching the daily news, which I have now abandoned. We are seeing Luke 21:10-11 happening right before our eyes, great earthquakes, famines, pestilences and even the blood red moons. But even worse, we are seeing what is described in Psalm 2 where the nations rage, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord.

How do we believers overcome? Psalms 1:2 tells us we are to delight in the law/Torah of the Lord and meditate (think deeply) on it day and night.

How do you do meditate? You pray the Scripture itself. Write it down and speak the Scripture out loud until you have it memorized. Remember the word is alive and sharper than a two-edged sword that delves between the bone and the marrow. The Word brings life and health to all your flesh.

But here is the rest of the tree story. Psalms 1:3 says, “He (You) is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. The wicked not so.”

My Tennessee tree has born fruit for beneath its boughs lies a tiny cemetery. The original stones are so worn with age that the historical society had replaced them with new stones so that the names would not be lost.

On one tiny stone it is written, “Here lies the Infant Shipley, resting in the arms of Jesus.”

This little one of a short life still bears witness 200 years later on the earth that Jesus Christ is still Lord.

Pat Cantwell writes about faith for the Portales News-Tribune. Contact her at:

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