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Then the sec­ond tree said, “Some­day I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the cor­ners of the world. Every­one will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull.”

Finally the third tree said, “I want to grow to be the tallest and straight­est tree in the for­est. Peo­ple will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heav­ens and God and how close to them I am reach­ing. I will be the great­est tree of all time and peo­ple will always remem­ber me.”

After a few years of pray­ing that their dreams would come true, a group of woods­men came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, “This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a car­pen­ter” … and he began cut­ting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the car­pen­ter would make him into a trea­sure chest.

At the sec­ond tree a woods­man said, “This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the ship­yard.” The sec­ond tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becom­ing a mighty ship.

When the woods­men came upon the third tree, the tree was fright­ened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woods­men said, “I don’t need any­thing spe­cial from my tree so I’ll take this one”, and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the car­pen­ters, he was made into a feed box for ani­mals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. The sec­ond tree was cut and made into a small fish­ing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and car­ry­ing kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark. The years went by, and the trees for­got about their dreams.

Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the impor­tance of this event and knew that it had held the great­est trea­sure of all time. Years later, a group of men got in the fish­ing boat made from the sec­ond tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn’t think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleep­ing man, and he stood and said “Peace” and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had car­ried the King of Kings in its boat.

Finally, some­one came and got the third tree. It was car­ried through the streets as the peo­ple mocked the man who was car­ry­ing it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sun­day came, the tree came to real­ize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was pos­si­ble, because Jesus had been cru­ci­fied on it.

The moral of this story is that when things don’t seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imag­ined. We don’t always know what God’s plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best.