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Trees Of Humility
Do you like to brag? Come on, be honest! It is very human to boast, and bragging, in and of itself, is not bad. What matters is the attitude that motivates our boasting, and who or what we brag about (Jeremiah 9:23-24). So, I want to boast a little about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done. Let me set the backdrop for my pride by briefly mentioning one of man's recent technological achievements.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to pick up a newspaper, read a book, listen to the radio, or watch a news report on TV without some mention of computers. The computer is certainly an ingenious invention and, when used properly, can be of immense help to hospitals, homes, businesses, schools, and governments. But how does it stack up to God's "inventions?" I mean that literally--how does the computer stack up with, say, trees? Now, a tree cannot help us do our homework, or assist in our tax filing, but it would be grossly wrong for us to think it inferior to a computer. Christ never intended it to function like one. He had far greater purposes for a tree! Due to limits in our natural eyesight, the average person does not appreciate the utter complexity of a tree--any tree. We cannot deny the beauty of trees, especially in autumn, but few understand the splendor of their design. A tree is composed of cells, the microscopic building blocks of all life. Only Jesus knows how many cells are contained within a 100-foot-high oak. The number certainly exceeds trillions upon trillions upon trillions!
We don't have enough space in this article, or a thousand articles, to thoroughly discuss the inner workings of a typical cell. No one on earth comprehends all the intricacies of cellular function, and it can be stated with confidence that a single, tiny cell is much more complicated than any personal computer. Now let me pose a question: How big a tower could we make if we built it using an unlimited number of personal desktop computers? That is to say, if we used the computers as "bricks" or "building stones." Seem like a silly question? First, we would not expect our computer tower to reach much higher than one or two stories before it collapsed under its own weight. After all, plastic-shelled computers are not the strongest building material. Even if we could construct a tall pillar of computers, would we be able to design a second type of computer capable of reproducing itself and burrowing into the ground some 40 feet below? Improbable as this sounds, could we then create a system of pipes and ducts using the casings of the computers that might deliver water and vital minerals from the ground to the top of our 15-story tower? Finally, could we fashion a small factory at the top of our computer structure that would convert the energy of the sun into food? Well, I hate to disappoint any budding inventors, but the above project will be impossible for us to complete. We have ways (solar energy panels) of changing light into electricity, but leaf-eating animals, such as deer or caterpillars, cannot digest electricity! Yet, the Heavenly Father has already accomplished all of the above by creating trees. There is nothing simple about a tree. Each of its countless cells is an unbelievably complex "machine," designed to manufacture materials to survive, regulate its own growth, divide into new cells, and govern its special destiny. All the cells of a tree are not identical, just as all the people in a town are not the same. Some cells mysteriously transform into root cells or bark cells or wood cells, and some into the building blocks of buds, leaves, or flowers. How exactly Jesus accomplishes this, we simply don't know. Moreover, and THIS IS INCREDIBLE, each and every itsy bitsy cell in a tree has all the information (DNA) necessary to construct an entire tree! (This is also true of you. EACH of the 70 trillion cells of your body has instructions to form your brain, lungs, heart, and feet--it even "knows" the color of your hair and eyes!)
For simplicity's sake, let's divide the architecture of a typical tree into three areas: the roots, the trunk and branches, and the leaves. The roots that make up a tree's growth underground are like hands with a billion miniscule "fingers" that probe their way deeper and deeper into the soil. Exactly how many roots an average tree has, no scientist can say. It has been estimated that commercial plants like rye or wheat produce three miles (five kilometers) of roots each day. EACH DAY! A four-month-old rye plant may have upwards of 400 miles of roots in its root system! We can only wonder how many thousands or maybe tens-of-thousands of miles of roots a tree has.
We are all familiar with the twisted brown appearance of typical roots. This part of the tree, however, does not absorb moisture or minerals, a root's primary function. Rather, it is the very tip of each of a million roots that gathers in life-giving water for the tree. That portion of the root tip that absorbs water is only one inch (2.5 centimeters) long, and is very thin. Growing around the root tip are hundreds of root hairs, which are actually elongated cells. The end of each tiny root also has a cap of tissue covering the tip in order to protect the delicate growing tissue behind the cap. Only the root tip can add to its length; once a segment of root loses its hairs, it can no longer grow lengthwise. It can increase in diameter, though, helping the tree anchor itself firmly in the ground.
The leaves are fantastic factories that transform the photons of sunlight into sugar, a chemical form of energy that the tree and leaf-eating animals can use. The Lord Jesus Christ ingeniously designed the leaf to capture sunshine and conserve precious water piped up from the roots 15 stories below. Most leaves are coated with a thin layer of wax, called cuticle. The cuticle layer helps prevent the leaf from drying out. It is important, however, that the leaf also "breathe." Throughout the day, leaves take in carbon dioxide gas and give off oxygen. In the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is united to water to form carbohydrates, with oxygen as a by-product. At night, each leaf uses some of the sugar it has manufactured, releasing carbon dioxide--the opposite of what happens during daylight hours. In order to allow air to flow freely in and out, the Lord Jesus placed thousands of microscopic holes or openings on the underside of a leaf. These openings are known as stomata. Each stoma (the singular form of stomata) is rimmed by two guard cells that control the size of the stoma opening. In dry weather, the stomata of a tree can close completely to prevent the tree from losing too much water. God made the average leaf quite thin to maximize its exposure to sunlight and air. A fine layer of cells, called the epidermis, lines the leaf on the top, just beneath the cuticle, and on the bottom. In between these two epidermal layers are the palisade and spongy cells which contain green chloroplasts. Photosynthesis takes place in the chloroplast.
It is at the tiny stoma where the genius of a tree's water transport system is found. Water simply cannot travel up the trunk of a 100-foot-high tree without some help--major help. Stomata to the rescue! When the stomata of the leaves are open, water exits from the leaf and evaporates into the atmosphere in a process called transpiration. Each tree possesses hundreds of thousands of leaves (amounting to billions of stomata). This creates a powerful suction force capable of moving water molecules from 50 feet below ground up 10, 20, or even 30 stories into the treetop! Without Christ's remarkable design, trees would be limited to a height of a few feet. The bulk of any tree is formed by its trunk and branches, though a considerable amount of wood is found beneath the ground in the heart of the larger roots. Our remarkable Creator very patiently assembles the basic elements of a tree's trunk (that is, its bark and underlying wood) using a single-celled layer of tissue known as the cambium. The cambium layer is paper-thin and lies between the living bark and the living wood. During the spring and summer, the cambial cells are capable of forming bark (phloem) and wood (xylem). The wood cells are deposited to the inside of the cambium, while the bark cells form on the outside of the cambial layer. The cambium cannot grow lengthwise, except at the very tip of the tree's branches and roots. Therefore, once a tree trunk, branch, or root is formed it can grow only in girth or circumference. It does so by forming additional layers of new wood, not the expansion of old wood. (You can prove this to yourself by pounding a nail into a tree at exactly five feet off the ground. If you come back each year to measure the nail's height, it will always be the same. Fifty years from now the nail will still be only five feet above ground though the tree has grown considerably in size!) As the cambium adds more cells to the thickness of the tree's bark and wood, the diameter of the tree becomes greater and greater. The primary job of living bark is to move the sugar that is made in the leaves by photosynthesis down into the rest of the tree. Eventually the oldest of bark cells die. These dead cells form the outer layer of a tree's bark which is referred to as cork. Because the tree is growing year after year this outer bark stretches causing it to split, crack, and fissure. Though dead, the cork layer continues to have an important function, helping to protect the living tissues underneath from insects, fungus, and fire.
Conversely, as the cambium adds layers of wood onto the outside of already existing wood, the tree increases in girth. As with bark, wood cells eventually die and the innermost aspect of a tree's trunk or branches is a skeleton of once-living cells. The outer living wood, or sapwood, is that part of the tree which transports water and minerals from the roots to the leaves. It also helps store food for the tree's later use. The inner wood is known as the heartwood and is usually darker in color than sapwood. Though dead, heartwood adds greatly to the strength of a tree by providing a column stronger than steel around which the tree grows. Eventually sapwood turns into heartwood. In the process, no cells are added or subtracted, and the strength of the wood remains the same. The microscopic structure of bark and wood is far too complex to describe. We have included an illustration of wood tissue to help make this point. Jesus has taken the time to weave together all these tiny cells to form a tree. Multiply this times the countless number of trees in the world, and we have an incredible picture of God's might--capable of doing mind-boggling things!
Step out into creation; here we find a quiet, but audible testimony of Christ’s character. Trees radiate His beauty, wisdom, care, strength, love, and faithfulness. Let me suggest, however, that trees may reflect His humility more than any other divine attribute. Unlike animals, trees cannot move. It is on the very spot that an acorn falls that the oak lives and dies. Scripture teaches us that our Messiah holds all things in the universe together with His hands (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:17). Therefore, as a tree slowly grows in height and girth, Christ continuously sustains it. Throughout the heat of summer and the cold of winter, Jesus does not leave the tree unattended. Even when a tree is assailed by hail, air pollution, male dogs, or the knife of a couple in love, our Lord humbly reinforces its astounding architecture. Who of us could stand season after season without moving, insult after insult without reacting? This does not mean that trees are godlike--they are, to be sure, creations of the living God, separate from Him. But they are a wonderful testimony of our Father's humble patience. Consider how difficult it would be for us to gently hold a baby bird in the palm of our hand without making any sudden movements, night and day, until it was old enough to fly. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ does by way of trees. Jesus has constructed cathedrals, 15 to 40 stories high, using remarkable "computers" called cells too small for our eyes to see. These structures are wonderfully complex, fashioned together in an architecture of unbelievable function and beauty. Unlike our machines and buildings, a tree never stays the same. As long as it is alive, it is constantly growing and changing shape, and silently proclaiming the glory of its Creator!
The Colors of Our Creator Annually a very special event brings into focus the beauty of our Lord Jesus--the unveiling of spectacular autumn trees and shrubs. Ironically, this vivid and majestic display by woody plants heralds the coming of winter, a time of struggle and death for many of God's creatures. Yet the pigments contained in autumn leaves also represent a source of life for animals. Autumn is a time when our Creator patiently and lovingly demonstrates His skills as the great Artist. He transforms uniformly green hillsides and forests into a kaleidoscope of colors. The Lord's paints are not those used by people, but are dyes found in leaves with strange names such as carotenes (CARE - o - teens), xanthophylls (ZAN - tho - fils), and anthocyanins (an - tho - SIGH - a - nins).
In early spring, please take the time to examine the buds of a tree and their tender emerging leaves. It is possible to get a glimpse of fall colors then. These leaflets contain little or no chlorophyll, the chemical which makes summer foliage green. Though chlorophyll is not yet formed, other pigments are present in the infant leaves and can easily be seen. These are some of the same pigments which the Lord Jesus Christ uses to decorate autumn. Most leaves are aglow with yellow, orange or red throughout the summer. Problem is, we can't see the colors because they are overshadowed or masked by the intense green color of chlorophyll, but they're there! (If we covered a spot of rust with green enamel we won't see the corrosion through the paint. Remove the green paint, however, and the rust becomes all too apparent.) In fall, deciduous trees (those with leaves that drop off in autumn) stop making chlorophyll. Green quickly disappears, leaving the other pigments of orange, yellow, and red to shine forth in the leaves. The foliage of some trees, such as the oak, turns bronze in autumn. This brown hue is due not to the usual plant pigments, but to the oxidation of each leaf. Oxidation is a chemical reaction which causes oxygen to combine with plant tissues, changing their composition and color. It is analogous to rust forming on bare metal when exposed to air. Almost without warning and seemingly overnight, the brilliance
of fall bursts forth! How does God command these changes to occur? Many have
believed that frost triggers trees to transform. It is not crisp temperatures,
however, but decreasing daylight which sends the signal. In some places, fall
colors occur without a single frost. The very existence of fall leaf colors has been a puzzle to scientists. As far as we know they serve no purpose for the trees themselves. Yet these yellow, orange and red autumn pigments are the same chemicals which give many fruits and vegetables their bright complexion. The orange of carrots, pumpkin, or squash, for instance, can be converted to Vitamin A once inside animals and people. Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for human and animal survival. Thus, as the yellows and oranges of autumn trees foretell the trials of winter to come, they also represent life and exemplify Christ's concern for His creatures. Animals can also showcase the beauty of fall. Cows and chickens eat green plants and seeds containing hidden chemicals. These ingredients then appear as the yellow of fresh cream and egg yolk.2 Frequently, the brilliant yellow and red of ornamental birds come from plants. A bird eats certain kinds of vegetation and, like trees, its feathers boast the extracted pigments. Autumn is very special for many people because of this unique performance by the great Painter! Fall hues are fleeting, but they can remind us of Christ's own eternal beauty. Even though these colors are of no value to trees, God puts them to use, creating breathtaking scenes and supplying the needs of animals and ourselves. He is truly a Lord of majesty, beauty, ingenuity and tender mercies! Let's continue to worship Him in our hearts for all He has done.
From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines
forth. 1 Kjell B. Sandved & Ghillean T. Prance, Leaves (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc, 1985), 159. 2 Carl L. Wilson & Walter E. Loomis, Botany (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), 47.
As trees take center stage in many parts of the world this fall, it is good to remember the words of our Lord spoken through His friend Peter, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus did die on a tree--the cross--two thousand years ago so that we could be forgiven of all our sins. He died not just for the people of His day, like Peter, but for all people of all time. And He did not remain dead. By the power of God's Spirit He came back to life and paved the way for us to spend forever in a beautiful place called heaven, with God His Father. When you look around and see the vivid colors of fall leaves, please realize that a greater beauty and a more wonderful paradise awaits you if you simply believe the words of Peter. Although Jesus died for all people for all time, only those who truly believe in Him will spend eternity with Him. If you have never committed your life to Christ, please take a moment right now to confess your wrongdoing and independence from God. Then accept His free gift of love as you begin to live your life for the first time totally forgiven of sin and dependent on Him.
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