Things Break


It was early morning and I was out on the deck looking up at the big pecan tree. I was noticing where several big limbs had broken and fell. About a year ago a really big one had fallen across the deck, where I was now sitting, and on to the house. I was thinking about how bad it was for those limbs to break like that. And then I remembered someone telling me that…. sometimes the limbs just fall off…. Pecan trees just do that.
My story about the broken places changed when I had more information. The broken limbs were not a “bad” thing after all. The tree was doing exactly what it was meant to do. I called it “bad” because, in my opinion, the limbs were falling in what I perceived to be the ‘wrong” places. I also thought that the places where they had broken didn’t look right.
The truth is that nothing about it was wrong. Limbs break off and fall from Pecan trees. The broken places are evidence that what needed to happen did in fact take place. They also serve as reminders that as long as the pecan tree is alive…there will be more breaking.
Things break…even people. Sometimes we see the places where breaks have occurred and it doesn’t look ‘right”. Sometime the broken pieces seem to have fallen in the ‘wrong” places.