36 x 36, original mixed media painting created with paper collage and oil paint on cradled panel.
 
When my brother was four, he took our 1987 Ford Fairmont out of park and coasted down our hill, smashing the car into an unassuming and perfectly placed tree.  He crawled out, terrified, but without a scratch.  The car?  Totaled.   
 
As I remembered that incident 35 years later, I’m in awe of how God protected him through the help of a tree.  If the tree hadn’t stopped his momentum, he would have gained speed for another quarter mile of downhill fields, heading right into a creek.  As I was working on this piece, I asked my dad if he recalled what kind of tree stopped my brother.  He was pretty sure it was a sumac tree, but I could never find reference that matched the memory I had.  The leaves weren’t right, the size was never right, etc.  As I researched, I discovered a tree type that is often mistaken for a sumac tree.  It’s called “Tree of Heaven.”  It gave me chills.