Faith Story - Frances Deter

The year was 1969. We pastors were so excited for the opportunity to hear Dr. Frances Deter. He was the guest speaker for a training session for pastors in the Chattanooga area. Clarence Salee, the chaplain of Moccasin Bend Mental Health Center was sponsoring this event. His topic for the day was "You are more important than a tree."

Dr. Deter began his presentation to us with a personal story. He and his wife had made arrangements for their seven year old grandson to spend some time at their home during the Spring vacation. Their grandson, Tim, was ready. He was so excited, trying to guess what his grandparents had planned for the day. Both granddad and grandmother had some special activities in mind. At the breakfast table Tim asked "What are the plans?" Dr. Deter said, "I was ready." "I suggest we go to the plant nursery and buy a special tree in Tim's honor, and plant it today somewhere on our property." Both grandmother and Tim thought it was a great idea. As grandfather and Tim went off to buy the tree, grandmother reminded grandfather to not use up too much of the day, because she had several things she wanted to do with her grandson.

It turned out to be a long morning. First the "men" were gone about two hours picking out the tree, a beautiful cherry tree. When they returned, after some refreshments, they were off to find just the right place to plant the tree. Grandmother was getting irritated, because they were taking so long to do what she considered to be a simple task. By the time they got in for lunch, grandmother was not in a good mood. When they sat down to eat, grandmother, immediately said, "I want you two to know that I am a little irritated with you. You have used up half of the day. Now we can not do all the things I hoped we would be able to do." After listening to grandmother for sometime, she finally said, "It just does not make sense to spend all morning planting one tree. Just how long does it take to plant a tree?" To that question grandfather answered, "It took all morning because Tim is more important than the tree."

Then Doctor Deter turned to those of us he was teaching and asked, "What do you think I meant when I told my wife that the boy is more important than the tree?" We had a wonderful discussion about our need to relate to persons as more important than things, or schedules, and activities.

Scriptural insight: "Jesus asked, 'Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?' Then He called a child to come to him. Jesus took the child and put him in the midst of those He was teaching"(Matthew 18:1,2).