I attended Berry College where I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree. Berry College made a huge impact on my life. It was during those early college years I received much of the personal, emotional and spiritual formation I have carried in my life.
Being a Berry student I also was grafted into a tremendous legacy and heritage that traces back to the founder of the school, Martha Berry. She was a woman way ahead of her time and she gave all she had for the sake of education.
She was also a person of wisdom and vision.
Martha, along with her family, inherited a massive tract of land – land upon which Berry College now resides. In fact, the acreage of Berry College is so grand that in terms of physical area, Berry College is the largest college campus in the world, some 29,000 acres.
As she was planning out the campus, Martha planted two rows of oak trees through the middle of a field that was used for planting crops. Her advisers thought her daft and argued against the action.
She had a vision of an oak lined roads leading through the campus. She envisioned the future and acted upon it. Today the investment adds to the Berry College landscape also touted as not just the largest campus in the world but certainly one of the most beautiful. Check out: www.berry.edu
I am reminded of this quote… A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit. – D. Elton Trueblood, Former chaplain to both Harvard and Stanford Universities
Reflect: Martha left a physical legacy through her vision and generosity. What legacy are you sowing into even today?
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