A Tree
Joyce Kilmer said, “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”
National Geographic featured a five page fold-out of a tree called “The President” in their magazine in 2012.
The giant sequoia tree in Nevada’s Sequoia National Park is 3,200 years old, has 2 billion leaves and stands 247 feet (74 metres) tall. The portrait of the giant tree, taken by National Geographic, is actually a mosaic, made up of 126 photographs in order to capture the stunning full-length shot. The giant sequoia tree in Nevada’s Sequoia National Park is 3,200 years old, has 2 billion leaves and stands 247 feet (74 metres) tall. The President is by no means the tallest tree in the world – that honour goes to a California redwood, which stands 379 feet (116 metres) tall – but in terms of mass, it is one of the largest. ‘We know that there are trees that have bigger trunks, but when you add up all of the wood beside the main trunk – all of the limbs, all of the branches, all of the bio-mass above the ground – this tree is likely the biggest,’ said Steve Sillett from Humboldt State University. (Daily Mail.com)
I have seen some big trees, but this is without question a giant. . .and the picture is indeed stunning. Imagine decorating that for Christmas. Of course, in my opinion, that would just distract from the beauty that is already present in such a work of God.
Even that tree pales into insignificance when we consider the tree on which our Savior died. As we enter the Christmas season, I am inviting you to plan now, prepare now, begin to discipline yourself toward a focus on the reality that the gift that was given, found by shepherds in a tiny manger in Bethlehem, was the Messiah, the Christ, the Perfect Lamb, who would die on a tree – on a hill called Calvary – just outside Jerusalem. No tree stands taller. No tree stands more clearly to disclose the llove of God for mankind. No tree could ever bear the burden borne by the Savior that day as He carried the unrighteousness of the World on Himself. . .conquering sin and death.
The tree the Savior carried to Golgotha, and that bore His tortured body, was not the tallest or the largest, but is by far the most important. . .for on that tree was hope, and peace, and life eternal.
It’s something only God could do.