“For the past eight years I have been a full-time chaplain on Mercer Island, near Seattle.

A couple years ago a 110-year-old willow tree COLLAPSED in the middle of the night. Arborists arrived and removed everything but an eight-foot stump.

We felt a deep SENSE of LOSS ... even held a memorial service in honor of our fallen friend. Yet, Imagine our SURPRISE when, within a few months, green shoots began to emanate from the stump. What we had grieved as gone was RETURNING to LIFE!

Within a year, the tree returned to its previous glory.

I took a photo of the tree to document what I viewed as a “Godwink.” The reborn tree was God’s way of reminding me that it is always TOO SOON TO GIVE UP."

Greg Asimakoupoulos

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