Although not to be confused with THE Big Tree in Goose Island State Park, our tree is still pretty impressive, despite having lost some of its expanse to Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The picnic table below is a great spot to take a breather and enjoy the ocean. Just know – climb at your own risk!
A poem: The Tree
January 15, 1987, by O. Shearer
A place in Lamar has no equal
To its beauty, peace and grace.
There is a shrine there with a Mother fair
Whose only desire is to show God’s face.
Many stop at Schoenstatt
For just a little while
To find the peace and happiness
That makes the Lady smile.
Before the shrine there stands a tree.
It is beautiful to behold,
Yet in that tree a mystery
Of humanity unfolds.
Its branches were snarled and twisted by the wind
As it grew from a tiny seed.
It breathed the salt air from the Gulf
And its branches show their deed.
You can see in its branches how the pages of time
Have twisted it out of shape
Until in its beauty there is ugliness
That from the eye cannot escape.
Like us it started from a tiny seed,
Its purpose in life to grow;
In all its beauty and ugliness
The love of God to show.
Though twisted, bent and bruised by sin,
Our beauty can still shine through.
As we try in life to avoid the winds
Of the devil’s attempts to make us sin.
If we follow the way our Lord has trod
And walk in the footsteps of our god,
Our beauty will shine through our twistedness,
And no one will notice our ugliness,
But like in that tree, see only the beauty of God.