Finding Jesus in the trees
Listen to this articleThis is absolutely not a religious article but it truly does tell a true tale of finding Jesus in a most unusual way. It happened on Monday March 13th 2017 in Burbank, California.
For a long time now I have been taking photographs of trees and then digitally modifying them to bring some unique elements and images into view. Often times what I have discovered within a tree is rather surprising, so much so that not long ago I published a book with 50 modified tree images. The book is entitled Whimsical Trees and is available from Lulu.com. Now I am working on a follow up book entitled Whimsical Trees – Volume Two and it is almost half done.
You should also know that I am absolutely not a deeply religious person. I am definitely not an atheist but I also rarely go to church. As a child I did regularly attend the Cuyler Avenue Methodist Church in Oak Park, Illinois but over the years my church going has dwindled to near zero. But then again for some inexplicable reason I did go with my wife to a church just two weeks ago.
So with this background what happened on Monday, March 13th 2017 will be correctly viewed as nothing less than miraculous. As I always do I took one of the tree photos from my camera and put it up on my computer screen to see what I wanted to do with it. saw an image that looked extremely interesting but to get a better look I changed the hue and contrast just a wee bit and suddenly I froze and stared long and hard at my computer screen, for there before me was an unmistakable image – a clear and undeniable image of Jesus Christ. There is even the top of a cross rising just above his head.
Of all of many tree images I have had lots of sad faces, a few satanic images a couple of dogs, a few birds even gem stones, but never in my wildest dreams did even imagine finding an unavoidable very clear image of Jesus Christ emerging from an otherwise rather pedestrian tree along Glenoaks Boulevard in Burbank, California.
Just to be absolutely sure of what I had I printed a copy and took it to one of my neighbors by the name of Shirley because I knew she was a truly devout Christian and I wanted her honest and informed opinion. The very instant her eyes glanced upon my photo she froze in obvious delight for even my deeply religious neighbor instantly saw Jesus in the image before her.
Now I really don’t want to pretend to know what if anything all of this means but I do know that there is some magic involved because all at once I began to consider ways of using this sacred image for some positive charitable purposes and those thoughts don’t generally come naturally to me.
So the first thing I did was to offer Shirley copies of the photo image of Jesus for $10 for each of her fellow church members who might want one and with each $10 purchase I would donate $5 to her church. When you factor in the cost of the high grade photo paper and the ink used in printing I am just barely covering actual cost and making no profit, but the church is getting $5 for each print sold. Now I extend that very same offer to anyone else who may be interested.
If you would like to make this available at your church just send me an email to helloronirwin@gmail.com and I will send back the very simple details. It is that easy and every one of my prints will be signed by me, unless you ask me not to sign.
Not interested in making this a church event but you still want a copy of this extraordinary image? Okay then simple go to eBay here and order your print. Yes the price on eBay is $15 because there are costs associated with using eBay but even so 30 percent of each sale goes directly to Doctors Without Borders, a group well known for saving many lives all over the globe.
Talk about miracles, one utterly random photograph of a boring tree reveals the image of Jesus Christ and this old curmudgeon becomes warm, loving and charitable. Now that folks is truly a miracle.
Ron Irwin was born in Chicago, Illinois a long time ago. He served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, became a trial lawyer, TV and radio host, CEO of a public company and once held an Emmy. He never won an Emmy he just held one. Ron has written and published twelve books. His most important book to date is “Live, Die, Live Again” in which Ron tells of his early life and his unexpected and very temporary death in 2012. That experience dramatically refocused his life and within the pages of that book Ron reveals how he achieved a much healthier life, ridding himself of Diabetes, Cancer and Heart Failure. Now Ron enjoys writing about many things including health topics, travel [he has circled the globe several times], adventure, culinary experiences and the world of performing art. Ron’s motto is “Live better, live longer and live stronger because it feels great and annoys others.” Contact the author.