Apple blossoms bursting wide now beautify the tree
And make a Springtime picture that is beautiful to see...
Oh, fragrant lovely blossoms, you'll make a bright bouquet
If I but break your branches from the apple tree today...
But if I break your branches and make your beauty mine,
You'll bear no fruit in season when severed from the vine...
And when we cut ourselves away from the guidance that's divine

Our lives will be as fruitless as the branch without the vine....
For as the flowering branches depend upon the tree
To nourish and fulfill them till they reach futurity,
We too must be dependent on our Father up above,
For we are but the branches and He's the tree of love
 

by Helen Steiner Rice