When the blossom petail falls...

Một câu chuyện đày ý nghĩa cho những ai muốn nhâm nhi một ly cafe vào tối thứ 6 (hay trà cho những ai hay mất ngủ)....


The Contents of Grandmother''s Picnic Basket


"Who''ll give a hundred dollar bill? Ten dollars... Seventy-five. Now eighty... eighty-five, ninety... ninety... and a quarter. Now two... two-fifty..."


The auctioneer''s voice rang out loudly as a crowd gathered around a wagon filled with handmade wooden items and antiques.


He was auctioning my grandmother''s old wooden picnic basket. The crowd watched in suspense as a determined basket collector struggled to outbid a team of three grandchildren. The collector was bidding for a picnic basket. My cousins and I were bidding for a piece of family history we hadn''t seen since our childhood days. This picnic basket was an unforgettable treasure with some very special contents.


A contest of wills raged on until the old picnic basket was safely back in our family. The sale price was not important, but Grandmother''s picnic basket, with the lessons and love that remained inside it, was priceless.


Grandmother often packed the basket with sandwiches and homemade pie. She made jugs of lemonade and walked with my mother, cousins, and me to a special apple tree in Grandfather''s orchard. We would picnic and have long chats under its shady branches.


Grandmother told stories about her childhood years-the struggles of coming to a new country, establishing a home, and how she and Grandfather had planted this special picnic tree.


In April, blossom petals sometimes fell into the picnic basket. One day, Grandmother picked up one of the blossom petals. She told us that apple trees need to grow before they will blossom. She explained why each blossom is important for another apple to grow.


Grandmother said that apples grow in different colors, and that each one is shaped a little differently from all the rest. Yet each one is important for filling the tree with ripe fruit in August. She also told us that one tiny apple seed could produce a new tree that would grow, blossom, and bare many apples in its lifetime.


Grandmother gently tossed into our minds the idea that people also need to grow before they will blossom. In ways we could understand, she explained that we are each one of God''s seeds with great potential. She assured us that God had a special plan for each of our lives, and if we grew up strong in faith, we would blossom just like the picnic tree.


Throughout the passing years and many confusing twists and turns, Grandmother''s chats beneath the picnic tree took on a deeper meaning. Her message became clear:


Just as one apple blossom is important among many, you are important in God''s world. You were created for a reason. Each individual makes a difference.


Your life will have many branches. They can burst into beautiful blossoms again and again if you nurture yourself to grow. God has placed within you the potential for countless fruitful achievements. Discover your potential and allow it to blossom. When a blossom petal falls, pick it up and discover its lessons.


Today, the old picnic tree is the last survivor from Grandfather''s original orchard. It stands alone in a meadow of grass and clover. Weathered by time and storms, it has become frail, ready to be toppled by a gusty wind. Yet its remaining branches blossom in the spring and yield ripe fruit in late summer.


When the picnic tree is gone, a sapling growing from one of its own seeds will replace it. I couldn''t begin to guess how many apples it has produced in its lifetime, or how many thousands more it will produce through its descendants.


However, I will always remember blossom petals falling from its branches into a picnic basket. Grandmother''s picnic basket is a treasure containing lessons that will never grow old and a Grandmother''s legacy of love that her grandchildren will never forget.