Back To Home Page To Archives - Spring of Life - H. Roger Bothwell Birches The ice has pulled the birches over and bowed the highest branches to the ground. The rabbits in the yard are feasting from boughs that move slowly high above in the summer wind. Next August I will walk in the woods and look upward to see rabbit trimmed branches and one who did not know would never guess it to be the work of cottontails. The world is full of the unusual. What a genuine joy it is so see something new and be stimulated by the freshness of God’s handiwork. Last evening the moon was full and it’s gentle light shining through the thin layer of frozen water coating the birches lit them better than any Christmas tree at the White House. Last evening the ice crunched beneath my feet as I moved slowly through the woods feeling the cold fingers of the birches brush my cheeks. Robert Frost once wrote about the childhood experience of riding birches to the ground and being a swinger of birches. Last night I was a friend of the birches wrapped in their winter embrace as they knelt to me to greet me in nocturnal splendor. Did they mind feeding the rabbits? I doubt not. Did they mind my moving among them? I doubt not. Will they stand tall again in the summer breeze? Oh yes even higher than last summer as they reach for the sky. Once as a boy I rode a birch to the ground but now that I am a man I think I will just enjoy them from the ground and know they are a gift from my heavenly Father making my woods a friendly place. I'm Roger Bothwell and my address is hrb1@tiac.net or 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453. Thank you for your support of our faith ministry. Past devotionals can be accessed at Archives