One  day, when my daughter was about eight years old, she came home from school upset. One of her friends had shared that her mom was very sick.   My daughter was very distraught that I might get sick and die.  In that moment I said, “Don’t worry because if I die, I’ll go to heaven and I’ll wait for you and we’ll be together in heaven one day.”  

She said, “How will I find you?”  

I said, “There is a big beautiful tree. You’ll see it. I’ll wait for you under the tree.”

The mysterious thing about this is that I didn’t know the Lord at the time. I didn’t know anything about Heaven and I certainly didn’t know about a tree. But in that moment I gave the answer that I thought would calm the fears of my little girl. 

About seven years later, I met Jesus and accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour. Imagine my amazement when I started to read the Bible, and read about the tree of life, in the book of Revelation (Rev.22:1-2)

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

As I recalled the words spoken to my daughter several years earlier, I sensed that God had given me the words.  Though I didn’t know it at the time, God knew that my son would be saved years later at age 15.   A year after that  my  daughter would be saved, and a year after that I would be  saved.  In His mercy, He gave me words of truth to calm the fears  of my little girl.  And someday, we will all meet under the big beautiful tree in Heaven.