Dear church family,
Over the summertime, my family and I have enjoyed taking Saturday trips to forested spots near Sylva. Our favorites thus far have been the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest near Robbinsville and the Cradle of Forestry in America near Brevard. Both locations have afforded us beautiful picnic areas, intrepretive knowledge of history and landscape, and long, peaceful walks in the woods. I highly recommend you visit them, even if you’ve already been there before.
There’s something special about trees, isn’t there? They offer us shade and fruit and lumber. They’re a haven for pollinators and other creatures. They purify the air around us. They direct our eyes down – towards the earth – and up – towards the heavens – and in this they reorient us to the things of God. As Joyce Kilmer himself wrote, “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree… / Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree.”
Is it any wonder, then, that Scripture talks a lot about trees? There’s the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2; the tree of wisdom in Psalm 1 and Proverbs 3; and the new tree of life in Relevation 22. Remember that the cross of Jesus is often called a tree throughout the New Testament (“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’” – Galatians 3:13). And then, remember how Jesus described himself as a vine (very similar to a tree!), and his followers as his branches, in John 15. So, yes, there is something special about trees.
This doesn’t mean we worship trees – we Christians aren’t pagans or pantheists. But it does mean we see them as signposts of the Kingdom, reminding us of God’s goodness in creation and of our call to be stewards of that creation. In this last stretch of summertime, I hope you spend some time among the trees. And, as you do, give thanks to the God who made them.
Yours in Christ,
Blake
