Sycamores, Stumps and Springboards
Whatever the opposite of green-fingered is, I am it. In the past I have even managed to kill off succulents. Those things survive in deserts. They didn't survive me.
So it was with a mixture of awe and uncomprehending ignorance that I read about the National Trust's twig-grafting and seedling-growing efforts to preserve a legacy for the famous and infamously-felled Sycamore Gap tree.
What a beautiful thought that there will be new off-shoots from that mighty, toppled tree. What a beautiful thought that one day mini-copies might be sent out to schools and communities to grow and flourish there and continue a horticultural inheritance. What a beautiful thought that, as referred to in the article, new shoots may yet grow from the stricken stump itself.
You see where I'm going with this?!
Trees and Stumps as a Springboard to Christ
My first thought on reading the article was of the stump of Jesse in Isaiah 11. In 6:13 of that prophetic book, God pictures Israel as a felled tree. Because of her sin, Israel would be cut down in judgment. But there is a promise of hope too: a stump (remnant of people) would remain from which future, lasting deliverance would come.
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1-3)
The felled tree and remaining, shoot-producing stump point forward to Christ, himself crucified on a tree to bear the curse that sin deserves in order to release his people from that curse (Galatians 3:13, ESV).
And then further tree-related thoughts followed:
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden - a tree more famous even than the Sycamore Gap tree, the story surrounding which is the origin and explanation for all that is wrong and ugly in the world. And the tree of life in the new Jerusalem of Revelation that speaks of restoration and healing and eternal life.
Tree imagery in the psalms (eg Psalm 1:1-3; 92:12-15) or in Jeremiah (17:7-8) that speaks of the way of flourishing as found only in the Lord and in trusting in him and his steadfast love.
The cedars of Lebananon - a picture throughout the Old Testament of how even the strongest, most powerful, most proud of rulers and nations cannot stand before the Lord who is judge of all.
The in-grafting and regrafting of branches in Romans as a picture of God's saving work among Gentiles as part of his bigger salvation story that began with the Jews and of his ongoing desire to see Jews come to Christ.
The vine that is Christ in John 15 as a picture of what it is to be saved by faith, live by faith, welcome pruning by faith and be fruitful.
What a lot of amazing gospel ideas, just from trees! And doubtless there are many, many more that didn’t occur to me.
The Natural World as a Springboard to Scriptural Conversation
The BBC article that prompted these musing felt like exactly the sort of general-interest-easy-conversation topics I can imagine coming up in discussion with family or friends. The same too is true of stories about space exploration, new Planet Earth-style documentaries, viral bread-recipes, viral outbreaks, wind energy, earthquakes, gardening, honey, the return of spring sunshine...(We do like to talk about the sunshine.)
Why that list? Because all of them feature in Scripture and all of them can point us and others to truths about the nature of God, about his saving work, about the gospel.
It has been our practice since the kids were very small to use the features of the natural world that naturally attract their attention to tell them about the God who made them: we might share the encouragement of Matthew 10:29-31 because of a sparrow spotted on a walk, or talk about the nature and work of the Holy Spirit from John 3 when we're caught out on a blustery day etc... Two books that have helped me hugely in this are John Hindley's You Can Really Grow, and specifically chapter 7 that taught me about 'Seeing Jesus in Creation', and more recently Andrew Wilson's God of All Things, in which, over 30 short chapters, Andrew takes his reader to various truths about God from the starting point of assorted natural and domestic entities.
Take the Leap
What that looks like in adult conversation is something I'm still working on. But 'You know what that reminds me of...' doesn't have to be a weird gear-change way to start. When you listen to conversation among groups, it's amazing how often people just use a previous comment as a springboard to something they want to talk about. It's not great, other-person-centred listening or selfless conversational practice, perhaps. But it does mean we can be less self-conscious that we perhaps are about taking the initiative with the topic and moving towards Christ in it.
So just as one of the ways we grow in love and appreciation of Christ and the good news is by training ourselves to see gospel truths in creation, to see truths about the Creator in his handiwork, perhaps we can also train ourselves to see where contemporary news stories about the natural world might allow us to speak of the best story.
And then let's practise telling those stories to our friends, neighbours, families and colleagues. Even if it feels unnatural. Even if it doesn't go particularly well at the outset.
Because from small beginnings, mighty trees grow.
