Weeping Willow Tree - Salix alba 'Niobe'

Ponder This:

Something to Ponder:

Few trees are more immediately recognizable than a willow. You can see its branches and leaves drooping toward the earth as if it were, well, weeping. Willow trees are known for flourishing where there is water – in fact you will notice this spot is an area where water will gather during the wet portion of the year.

The Bible uses the willow as a simile when teaching us how to receive God’s blessing. Isaiah talks about Israel’s descendants “springing up” like “willows by flowing streams.” Those streams are God’s blessings – the blessings that surround us each day.

Some days those blessings are tough for us to recognize but this willow is a good reminder that it isn’t God’s love that has diminished but rather how we recognize the outpouring given to us every day. Willows grow and flourish as they receive the rainwater; they grow bigger and stronger as the floodgates of heaven give them the nourishment they need. God’s showers of blessings pour on us with each new day, how do you react?

Learn More:

The Weeping Willow-Salix babylonica L. is a medium tree growing up to 50 feet tall. Its long, slender, whip-like, olive-yellow to pale orange branchlets, droop gracefully in a weeping habit. Moisture-loving tree that propagates easily from cuttings. The wood is soft, light, weak and nearly white with no commercial value. This tree grows abundantly on the banks of the Euphrates, in other parts of Asia as in Palestine. The mention of the Willow can be referenced in the BIble as the "tree to which the captive Israelites hung their harps".