Have you ever heard the saying that the rain falls on both the good and the bad? Or maybe you have read in the scriptures that God “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, bad things happen to everyone. We …

It really was an ugly little tree. Its faded green branches shed pine needles like flaky skin, and it had absolutely no trunk to speak of. My roommates had gotten it from the lot right across from our apartment complex. I hadn’t even known that a tree lot existed there. The tree was placed in a white mixing bowl with …