The Tale of Three Trees is an old story, retold and richly illustrated. It is, as you guessed, about three trees who each have their own ambition—to be a treasure chest, a sailing ship and the tallest tree around—but whose dreams seem to crumble when the woodcutters come and put the trees to much humbler use.
This is a story about three trees, but it is also about how faithfully God walks us through valleys only to bring us out on heights both higher and grander than we could have imagined. This is a story about how closely His hand is at work in all that we do, however mundane our calling seems to be.
The Tale of Three Trees is a great story for children, who do the daily work of learning to share and be kind and not boss and do homework, but it is also a glorious story for parents, who too often let dirty dishes, laundry and long days obscure the work that God is truly doing in the humble heart of our homes.
The trees give up their grand dreams of splendor, only to have them fulfilled one-hundred-fold. And we, like seeds, go into the ground, to die daily to our own desires and to rise as a new creation, both richer and more fulfilled than we could ever, ever have hoped.
The Tale of Three Trees
Angela Elwell Hunt, Tim Jonke (1989)