365 Project Day 102: Oaks of Righteousness

Canon 5D Mark ll, 16-35 2.8L, 2.8 aperture, 1/250 shutter, 100 ISO

You can’t see it from this angle, but this is actually two trees, trunks and branches grown together so tightly they look like one.  Even more interesting, these trees border the property between Chris’s and my land , and my sister Liza and her husband Mickey’s land.

Chris and Mickey grew up friends and became like brothers. They have known each other since kindergarten. They played on the same high school basketball team, and later began a ministry playing and singing music together. That is what Chris was doing when I met him. He came to Virginia to Mickey’s wedding. Mickey married my sister, Liza. We were married exactly one year and 2 days later.

People used to tease us a lot. ” Wow, best friends who married sisters!” they would exclaim, asking us to give them the details. It was uncommon. Yet, not as uncommon as Liza and I  being pregnant at the same time. Our first born daughters are 5 weeks apart. When we were first married, we lived a stone’s throw from them on the campus of Atlanta Christian College. Soon, we rented side by side duplexes, wanting to stay together. Katie had colic and Liza said she could hear her through the walls crying at night. It was comforting having my sister right next store. People often thought we were twins when were pregnant at the same time. I have no idea why that made us seem to look alike to people, but it did. Then it became, “wow, best friends who married twins who are pregnant at the same time!”. Sigh. We would just let them run with it sometimes.

When we bought our first houses they were only a couple miles apart. It was difficult to find houses side by side. We would trade off date nights on the weekends.  Our kids would play together, all close in age, and then they would come to our house and put our kids to bed and vice versa. It was a great system.

Then, finally, we purchased land with them and several other families. This land. Our property borders theirs.  They are just a little over a stone’s throw away again. ( If you have a good arm). When we bought the land and Chris knew where the lines would be divided, he made note of these two trees, intertwining as one. Both growing together as a single mighty Oak. He told me he felt the trees were symbolic of his and Mickey’s friendship. Our families growing up together parallel with one another. I love those trees. The kids often climbed in them as they were growing up. They remain strong and able to hold them, even now. I am not surprised. May our families live close together always. May our roots go down deep for a firm foundation. A place of safety in the years to come.

Isaiah 61:3 ~” They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”