The Allegory of the Ugly Tree

As I was walking up to the temple this morning, I noticed all the pretty trees starting to bud. Since spring is not fully here, they are all still quite bare. You can clearly see the structure and the shape of each tree. There were beautiful rows of lovely, tall, straight trees all the way up the walk, their arms lifted to the sky as if praising their Creator.

Then all of a sudden, without any warning at all, right at the head of the gate, framing the beautiful temple behind them, were these two crooked, gnarly, deformed, ugly trees! Their branches grew off to one side, twisted and lopsided, doubling back over themselves with hugely swollen knots and gnarls at every joint. What a shock to the eyes!


Why did they put these ugly trees right here? They are an eyesore. They don’t belong. They mar the beauty of the rest of the temple grounds.


I’m so glad there’s a place at the temple for ugly, deformed trees—a place in the gospel for the often spiritually ugly and deformed people, like me. The ones who sometimes worship in a lopsided way, still learning how to lift their branches straight.


I bet when they leaf out, these are the most beautiful trees on the premises.