According to Nelson Henderson, \u201cThe true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.\u201d\u00a0 He is remembered only because his son Wes wrote a fairly simple and poorly edited work chronicling his family\u2019s life in the Swan River Valley of Canada.\u00a0 Henderson moved from Ireland to settle in Ontario, moved further west to settle in Manitoba.\u00a0 He fought in the trenches during World War I and returned to marry, farm, and raise three children.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most enduring lesson of the book was this single aphorism that his son Wes attributes to his father.\u00a0 But if you were going to be remembered for a single sentiment, there are worse life philosophies for which to be remembered.<\/p>\n
Most of us are taught to assume that the efforts we make in this life should somehow rebound to our own credit.\u00a0 And most of the goals we are encouraged to achieve are closely associated with the narrow horizons of our own lives.\u00a0 Some of us, sadly, even measure what succeeding generations should or should not have based upon our own fortunes.<\/p>\n
But in a very real sense, a developed spirituality leads us into a life poured out for others, lived in the hope that subsequent generations will benefit from our efforts \u2014 whatever the gain might be in our own lifetime. If that sounds like the life of Jesus, it is hardly a coincidence.<\/p>\n
But Henderson\u2019s image might provide a new window into his life that provides us a fresh perspective.\u00a0 When we talk about the sacrifice of Jesus we tend to think in categories that apply to him alone as Son of God or as Savior, or we think in terms of the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross.<\/p>\n
But in identifying with our lives, there was also something far more mundane, commonplace, and daily in the shape of his spirituality \u2014 planting trees whose shade he knew he would not enjoy.\u00a0 It was that self giving that shaped not just a few moments in his life, but shaped the character of the way in which he lived<\/p>\n
And that is something we can all do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to Nelson Henderson, \u201cThe true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.\u201d\u00a0 He is remembered only because his son Wes wrote a fairly simple and poorly edited work chronicling his family\u2019s life in the Swan River Valley of Canada.\u00a0 Henderson moved from Ireland to settle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\n