The Tree Cars zip by in a flash and impatient drivers sped ahead of one another. I tried to look at the car directly ahead of me but as soon as I realized I saw that car at that instant it had already past. The cars were moving equally in each direction. One car even crashed into a stop sign but it didn�t stop it kept on going. The speed of the cars burned my eyes just as much as the road burned the tires. The incesant noise of the cars zooming past, how it pains against my ear drums. I walk slowly at first the pain inside seemed to not be so bad. Then it got worse with each passing second so my slow walk turned into a swift jog. Away from the source of the noise.

Once I passed the noise of the street I found myself looking at a tree. The tree had very strong roots and trunk. The branches were holding onto the foundation and knew somehow that as long as there was a connection an inner truth would be found. The branches and twigs formed to create a sort of mouth. It was as if the leaves served as the trees words. They were obviously calling to me because I stood there staring at this tree, and i had no idea why. I watched the tree sway back and forth in serenity. Once in awhile the wind got so fierce that a leaf would fall off, but the sun always seemed to enforce the tree�s wisdom. It was shinning and radiating every individual leaf and branch. The glare off one of the leaves was so bright it made me squint and turn my head. Once the glare had faded I opened my eyes to find one of the leaves in my hand. It must�ve fallen off the tree and been carried by the wind into my palms. I stared at the leaf for a few seconds and it was if i had been staring at it for hours, days, and years. It told me of the trees continous silence and defness cycle. How certain birds had sung on the tree and left their words to be read by their droppings. How each years autumn season, all the words of the tree would suddenly be silenced and die. Each spring, new words would be formed from the branches and would call again to someone like me. It fascinated me how this tree was telling me these things. So I sat down next to the tree and looked up onto the trees braches, twigs, and leaves, and how the sun was highlighting and shading everything i could see, and everything I couldn�t see, it was amazing. The wind had moved the tree�s massive arms around me and I felt like nothing else was there except just me and this tree. I listened to the wind whistle through the tree�s words and create sound. I felt so peaceful, and it reminded me of the past. It was like the time when I almost got hit and killed by a speeding car. Before it struck me; I got so peaceful, like the cars impact didn�t matter. That I knew somehow that i was going to be alright. The glare off the windshield of the car wasn�t like the glare that would make you squint and turn your head. It was like the kind that makes you fall asleep or like the amazement of watching the sunset over a clear blue lake.

I found time slowing down. Each second passed like minutes and I just walked across the street nonchalantly staring at the windshield of the car at the light. I didn�t really care that in a few seconds i was probably going to be killed or seriously injured. The light calmed all fear for some odd reason. I could see past the windshield into the rest of the car. For a moment i thought i could see jesus christ behind the wheel of the car, but i shook my head, opened my eyes, and found it to be some guy on his cellphone looking for something in his glove compartment. As soon as the car was out of my periphreal vision I turned my head and the first thing i saw was jesus christ on his cross! I was so amazed i closed my eyes again, and when reopened, he was gone and, a tree was in his place. Immediately after i realized that it was a tree, a dove took flight and flew towards the sun. I watched it as long as i could til the laws of society told me to not look directly at the flaming ball of life for the fear that the sun would ruin my vision when actually it would cause me to open my eyes to truth and blind me to superficial things.

I then snapped out of my flashback, and got suddenly tired. So I decided to fall asleep. Knowing that nothing else exsisted besides me and the tree so i slept. I felt like the sun had suddenly increased its intensity and it had started to scorch the earth. I was sweating profusly and i got suddenly very thirsty. I opened my eyes to find myself lying face first into the sand. It was very hot. Like laying in a bed of coals so hot you threw a leaf near the coals and it would burst into flames well before it even hit the coals. I jumped up and spit the sand out of my mouth to prevent it from creamating my lips. I watched my spit evaporate as it hit the sand. I looked up to find a dark figure in robes i couldn�t really see his face but he was a pretty thin guy. Strangely i felt as though this guy was the strongest person i�ve ever seen. As he drew closer I felt at peace again. Just like seconds ago when i was at the tree. It was starting to scare me i had no idea what was going on. I even thought that this might be a dream but the pain that pressed on my lips from the hot sand was very real indeed so i quickly concluded that this could not be a dream. Once I could see the mysterious guy�s face I was shocked to see the figure was very similar to jesus�. No, not this time. I am not going to be fooled again so i closed my eyes and smacked my head with my hand. I thought since it was so hot here i was seeing things. A mirage perhaps i thought to myself. I reopened my eyes and it was still jesus standing there.

�friend, you look thirsty. Here have a drink.� he offered a cup I looked at the cup and it was very small. Not constructed traditionally like it should�ve been. I saw no small printing telling where it was made or when. It was just round. A hemisphere type cup you could fit it in the palm of you hands and it wasn�t hot like the rest of the place i was in. It was very cool and refreshing. It first healed my burning hands and it sent a cool chill up my arms that felt very good. I chugged down the water quickly and responded �thanks�

�hmm, your not from around here are you?�

�umm, yes I am. I�ve lived here all my life.� smiled and laughed but i looked at myself to find that i was wearing what i was when i fell asleep at the tree. A polyester shirt with dragons all over symbolizing the person that i want to become. A balanced person. I was also wearing blue jeans typical of the american teenager and i was still very confused. I looked around the desert and found nothing to suggest that civilization even existed at all except for this man.

�Your not where you think you are.� he responded

I looked around and knew that everything was different and that life suddenly just got more complicated �yeah i guess your right. I was in...� i was interupted

�Yes, you were sleeping under my father�s arms.�

�Huh? What do you mean? Under your �Father�s arms�?� I asked doubting that it was the man i thought it was

�I know you doubt many things. You doubt perhaps that this place here isn�t real. I know where you came from. My father has called you to me for a reason. He is worried about you and he loves you.� he explained everything in perfect detail. It scared the living crap out of me. I was beginning to believe that this man was actually Jesus Christ.

�I�m not sure where i am, or how I got here.� I said �All i know is that your standing here and i�m here, if your the person I think you are give me a sign.� I was doubting this reality. Like this setting and time was way too off and weird for me to accept. I was not going to give in so easily to what my eyes saw. They sometimes decieve me.

�I understand your unwillingness to accept. I cannot convince you of who I am. Just as like you cannot convince yourself of who you are...If you wont have faith about who you are you certaintly wont have faith in me.� he then walked away i tried to call to him but he quickly vanished.

I walked through the desert for several hours wondering around in random directions hoping to find water or food. After awhile my feet gave in and i fell. I got back up and kept going but each fall kept me down a little bit longer. Night never seemed to come. It was if the desert went on forever and time stood still. My perception of time was totally messed up and I wasn�t sure if i had moved at all. I thought about what Jesus said and i started to regret doubting him as well as doubting myself. When i was with him i wasn�t affraid that the sun was beating down on me or the heat burning my skin. Now i was affraid. I wasn�t understanding what was going on. I then took one step in the opposite direction i was walking in and a snake was there to greet me. It rattled at me in hostility! I tried to turn around but there was another snake curled up and ready to strike. I had no choice but to sit there and hope the two rattle snakes didn�t kill me. The two snakes then latched themselves to each of my legs! Their fangs sank in deep and i could not pull them off! The pain was so great i felt the venom go up my leg into my abdomen and I then suddenly broke down. I fell to my knees and cried. �Who am I?!� i cried out several times in distress. I then closed my weeping eyes and started to pray like i have many times before but this time more sincere �lord, i have doubted you. I have doubted myself in many ways. The snakes are at my feet lord. Their intentions are to kill me. I am truly sorry that i have done this to myself and to you. You are my best friend the only one i can truly trust and even you i doubted for an instant. Oh lord, please forgive me. It isn�t you that I dislike. I can�t find comfort within myself. I doubt everything because i think i am decieving myself and i cannot find an answer. I don�t know who i am. I dont know where I am or why i am here. Lord i am affraid, affraid of myself, and affraid of the snakes. I dont know what to do. Please help me.� I opened my eyes to find the snakes had suddenly disapeered and Jesus was suddenly standing next to me with his hand extended. I took it and allowed him to help me up to my feet.

�This is why my father had you come here.�

�I�m sorry i doubted you.� i wiped the tears off my face

�I�ve watched you grow. You have a good heart but your snakes will eat you alive. I am not here to tell you how those snakes are going to eat you. That you must figure out for yourself. I am to be your guide. Your strength to find those snakes and confront them. The car that speeds towards your body must not be allowed to strike or you will die.� Jesus continued �you should rest now, go over there� he points to a tree in the middle of the desert a whithered fig tree with no leaves, dead, and lifeless. �Remember, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain �go throw yourself into the sea.� and it will be done. If you believe, you will recieve whatever you ask for in prayer.�

I said nothing I just nodded in compliance and walked towards the dead tree. I knew that what he said was true. He has always been there for me. As long as i believe that things were going to be okay. Even when i doubted he was there reminding me of the truth that i sought after, and already knew, but fear had driven me to self destruction. I was affraid that my death might be possible but with the reminder of the �parable of the workers in the vineyard� i knew that I was going to be healed from all my pain and suffering.

I approached the dead tree stared at it as i would a live tree and let the wind caress my cheeks. I had stared at the tree for what had seemed like seconds but the sun had set by the time i had looked away and the moon was shinning brightly in the night sky. I sat next to the tree and leaned up against it. The tree was still strong. It seemed like it was simply asleep like it had been purposely put out for some reason. I then closed my eyes and started to pray again. �Lord, i thank thee for what you have shown me and I appreciate everything you have done for me. I am still affraid of myself, but i know with you by my side i can confront those snakes. I am asleep lord, and i want to be awakened to your wisdom. I want to teach others what you have taught me so their snakes wont be biting their legs as hard as mine.� I then suddenly fell asleep.

I awoke next morning to the song of many birds. I was puzzled to what had happened so I opened my eyes to find that I was at the same beautiful tree i was at before. I was relieved that it was all a dream like some crazy nightmare. I got up stretched and drank some water from a cup sittin near the roots. Same round cup that jesus had handed to me in the dream. Then i thought �wait a minute...� if this was the same cup i drank from then..I wasn�t dreaming, and i am still in where ever i was. I looked up onto the tree it had grown imensely in size. It used to be a little taller than me no more than a foot. Now made me look like an insect. There was vegetation all around me, and life was flourishing from every crack on the ground. Nothing was brown whithered and dead. They were green, alive, and perfect. I then turned my attention to the leaves. The sun was shinning through them, shading them, highlighting them, and making them look like jewels. It was so amazing. Words could not describe the beauty i was looking at. No words written could even come close. The fig tree had grown good fruit there was nothing bad about this tree. So i ate. I picked the fruit from a few branches that reached down to me. Some of the fruit from higher up even fell into my hands just like the leaf that the wind had blown before. The fruit was very good. I ate many roughly 9 or 10 all about the size of an orange. It was extremly rejuvenating. The water i drank cooled me inside as well as out. I sat on the tree�s roots and listened to the birds sing. It was therapeutic, the birds knew my distresses. They flew by me a few times to drop a feather into my lap. It was like they were all parts of myself that were reminding me of who I was.

After having the most amazing breakfast and morning of my life i walked away from the tree and towards the sound of a waterfall. As soon as i arrived i found jesus looking out onto the pond with the water falling into the body of the pond. It sparkled like diamonds and the water was perfectly clear. It was definately the kind you could drink from. �Look there� he pointed to a dark cave underneath the waterfall. �that is where you must go.�

�This is amazing, your amazing, life is amazing, god�s amazing� I was just in such shock at what i was witnessing

Jesus laughed and then responded �you must go there� he pointed again �that is where your snakes are. You are now strong enough and you are healed from the wounds the snakes have given you, but the poison is still setting in. Your strength will fade if you do not go now. The car draws closer nate, go�

�I am affraid still, you wont be there.�

�Your lack of faith is the poison that eats you alive.� he then walked away his words made sense it was my lack of faith that had brought me here in the first place.

I then thought about myself and what jesus had said I realized that if i didn�t start now that the poison was going to start weakening me. So I reached deep within myself to pull out enough courage to walk towards the edge of the cliff. It was a long way down to the pond. About 300 feet at least. Perfect vegetation and life sprouting out of every crack still. I had to dive into the pond and swim into the cave. I thought there was no way i could even survive the fall to the water, and if I did i would probably drown trying to swim to the cave. I then said to myself that the drop was not 300 feet down. What i was seeing was an illusion. That this was the poison Jesus had spoke of. I then positioned myself for the dive. I looked down, put my right hand on my heart, and lept off the cliff. On the way down the birds had suddenly took flight and left with haste. They were just as scared as I was. Chaos seemed to come as I drew closer to the pond. I could see everything on the way down. I wasn�t affraid of the fall, the force of impact on the water, My mind was on the snakes. I had to get them off my legs.

Just before I hit the water I saw the car. I saw the car speeding towards me. I then hit the water, but the water didn�t splash, or ripple like it should�ve. It shattered like glass! The pieces bent around me sometimes cutting me but didn�t stab. More like paper cuts. I could feel the pain. It was just as strong as the snakes biting my legs. I looked down at my legs and found 2 pairs of fang markings and the translucent images of the snakes still attached to my calves. They became more real as I traveled though the vise of glass. I saw the bottom of the pool of torture and once I hit I suddenly found myself standing in the middle of a busy intersection with the car speeding towards me at great speed. I was suddenly filled with great fear and the instinct to run to save myself. I stood there with eyes wide open. I knew if i didn�t run within the next split second that the car was going to smash into me and kill me just as Jesus had told me. I felt my legs starting to move, I felt the urgancy to get out of there as quickly as i could.

Then time stopped. I could hear a whisper coming from somewhere �If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled thean to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eyes causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.� Suddenly everything reanimated itself.

I took that advice to heart and took the piece of glass i didn�t even know i had in my hand and stabbed both my legs til i could no longer walk and it brought me to my knees. I watched as the car drew closer and closer. The car suddenly hit a slick area sped out of control towards the direction i would�ve run in if i had let my legs carry me. It eventually smashed into a stop sign smack in the center of the front of the car. The sign acted like a saw. It cut the car in two equal pieces. The two pieces were thrown into the air and pitched back and forth one of the pieces kept floating into the air. The other fell straight to the earth. As soon as it hit the earth the halve transformed into a dead snake. The piece that had been still in the air turned into a dove and flew off towards a tree.

I found myself standing, even though seconds ago i had stabbed my legs til i was on my knees. I was standing next to a car that had just seconds ago split in two near the stop sign. The stop sign was still there. Not even dented. The driver dove out of the drivers side and franticly asked if i was okay. I had nodded that i was fine and I continued to walk across the street nonchalantly. Like nothing had ever happened. I stopped to look at my legs and there were no stab wounds, no scars, and no snakes most importantly. I almost had forgotten about the piece of glass that i used on myself. I looked at my hand and it was clenched into a fist. I opened my fist expecting a sharp shard of glass but i found a dove�s feather. I was shocked to see this. I turned my attention to the tree that i was walking towards. Inside the tree at the highest branch perched the dove that had flown into the air from the halve of the car that didn�t die. The driver and several other witnesses were trying to piece together what had happened, but I didn�t care for their explanations about what happened. I truly knew. I had destroyed those snakes. The venom that had settled into my body had done enough damage to make me stronger. I kept walking towards the tree to pray and thank god.

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