THE TREE BESIDE LIVING WATERS

Beside Living Waters, Yorktown, VA

"The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's Tree."
--Thomas Campbell

I take a lot of photographs out in nature and I especially like to photograph images of light such as sunrises, sunsets and reflections. Not too many images of trees catch my eye, but one did as I was standing on the hallowed ground of the final battle of the American Revolution in Yorktown, Virginia. The graceful, wide ranging branches of a tree that was growing beside the York River immediately caught my attention. This living creation seemed to be bowing in silent reverence. Its symmetry and innate beauty is a visual testament to the last breaths taken by so many patriots that had fought and fell in the pursuit of freedom at this place. Their life blood had literally been spilled on this ground and it’s plausible that elements had eventually been drawn up by the giant tree’s life giving root system to sustain the organism.

I’m reminded of the writings of the very first Psalm in which those who place their faith in God are likened to a tree that is planted beside flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry. The Psalmist relates that your fruit ripens in its time and your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun. No matter what you do, you prosper, i.e., when we apply God’s wisdom the fruit or results we bear will be good and receive God’s approval. This doesn’t imply an easy life, but a worthwhile life of true value. The Psalmist continues that those who turn their back on Him are like fallen husks of wheat, tossed by an open wind, left deserted and alone. Their path will end tragically, but the journey of all has been charted by the Eternal if we choose to follow. Those first Americans sought individual and religious freedom and dreamed of a future where their descendants worshiped God in a grand experiment of diversity and the unbridled pursuit of happiness. They planted their dream of a new country and new beginnings beside a stream of living water and the roots ran deep and they were never thirsty again.

ONE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Liberty, One Country, One Constitution, One Destiny, Yorktown, VA

I just had the pleasure of visiting friends who are native to the historic Yorktown, Virginia area. Since I still find stories of human struggle and victory so fascinating, I also found the area to be equally fascinating, especially the final battle of the American Revolution at Yorktown! The end began for British General Cornwallis here in North Carolina when General Washington’s second in command, General Nathaniel Greene, engaged Cornwallis’ troops at the battle of Guilford Courthouse. Greene and his revolutionaries didn’t win this engagement, but they did cripple the opposition who marched on to the Outer Banks and Yorktown.

Destiny awaited both armies at Yorktown via both French and divine intervention. Cornwallis dug in with earthen redoubts and an escape route at his back across the York River if necessary. He knew reinforcements were sailing from New York in the form of 24 British war ships. But the French had deployed 36 warships from the West Indies to assist the young upstarts and they engaged the British ships in the Chesapeake and routed them out to sea. That victory left the ports open to sail ships up the river with siege mortars and reinforcements for the Americans. The French Comte de Grasse commanding his naval army and the Comte de Rochambeau commanding his auxiliary troops joined Washington’s troops and the Marquis de Lafayette to begin a nineteen day siege of Cornwallis’ defenses. He was outnumbered two to one and ordered a retreat across the York in numerous boats. One wave of one thousand men made it to the opposite shore before a severe storm scattered and sunk the next wave. Cornwallis understood the grave implications and surrendered to end the revolutionary war on October 19, 1781.

A 95 foot tall memorial rose above the shore of this hallowed ground near the York River to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the struggle. The chosen designer, Richard Morris Hunt, fittingly studied architecture in Paris and left an indelible imprint on the American landscape with such other designs as Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, the Administration building at Chicago’s World Columbian exposition, the Tribune building, the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty in New York. Lady Liberty stands atop the site as the cool breezes off the York still power sailing ships and billowing storm clouds pass in remembrance of the deciding blow to the defeated army. And circling around the monument are kindred souls locked in unity for the hope of “One Country, One Constitution, and One Destiny”—One United States of America!

STANDING ON HOLY GROUND

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado
Ground Zero, New York, NY
Peaceful Garden, Greensboro, NC

Four years after we met and were married, my young wife and I spent our honeymoon in and around the colorful Colorado Rocky Mountains and rushing river valleys. I still have a sharp memory of standing together early one morning at the rim of a deep gorge in the Mesa Verde high country. An eagle soared on the winds’ warm updraft and his call echoed off the cliffs. The ancients that had built the stone cliff dwellings in this gorge had mysteriously abandoned their village long ago. As we stood there in the shade of weathered pines and quietly listened to the wind singing in the needles and the great chasm below, we began to experience God’s presence around us. There was a keen sense of awe and inspiration that we were standing on holy ground in the midst of God’s magnificent creation.

Almost forty years later, my wife and I were in New York City in 2004 celebrating my birthday and we took a taxi to the recently cleared “ground zero” site. Our female taxi driver was on duty the morning of September 11, 2001 and soon afterwards. On our drive to the area, she respectfully shared her experience that day and of hearing pinging sounds coming from the destruction for weeks later. It is sound that she will never forget. We stood at the security fence quietly observing the stark area with a lone rusting iron cross that had been fashioned out of the rubble where almost 3,000 souls had perished. I took this photograph on my birth date of an inscription left by another pilgrim. We instinctively knew that we were standing on hallowed ground as we reverently read the heartfelt message.

Four years later, the two of us were sitting on a park bench near home viewing one of the most beautiful images I had ever captured in my camera lens. I had just wandered over to a Magnolia tree in the small garden park where we enjoyed walking together in the cool of the day. My wife was uncharacteristically tired on this morning after a rather severe chemo treatment, but we were both overwhelmed by the sense of peace and love this image gave us. We didn’t quite understand it at the time, but we were once again standing together on holy ground at that moment. Fifteen days later, I was standing with my family on holy ground as she was welcomed into His presence.

The experience of these holy present moments can be life changing.