This year my snowball tree was very loaded with flowers... unusally large, fluffy blossoms... and they were especially pretty because the rain hadn't soaked them and made them turn brown.
As my grandson came to visit, the petals of the flowers were starting to fall in the breeze. I asked him if he knew what kind of tree it was, and he said "no". So I told him what it was and had him feel how soft the fluffy flowers were. Thinking it would be fun for him, I had him stand by the base of the tree, and then I gently shook the branch just above him. Petals fell down all around him like snow. His eyes lit up with wonder and delight, so we did it again.
He bent down and began to scoop up some of the petals in his hands. He asked me for a baggie to put them in. Then he ran around the other side of the tree and looked up at all the fluffy blooms on that side, saying, "Oh, this is Grandma's special tree!"
He reached up, and more petals started to fall. He asked me for another bag as he knelt down and filled his little hands again with petals. Before we were through the snowball tree "snowed" several times for him, and he was totally intrigued and delighted.
The joy that he had is a memory I will not soon forget. It seemed that happiness itself snowed on him and all around him when the petals fell.
Maybe God had a little child in mind when He created a snowball tree... Maybe He wanted His blessings to fall on this special little boy.
© 2007 Arlene Schwartzkopf