Trees

Trees are around us all year long, but the Fall is a season of special splendor. In the Winter, we pretty much ignore most of these brown stick-like figures. In Spring, we welcome back their emerging blossoms and bright green leaves. During Summer, we think more about the shade that they provide than the trees themselves. But in Fall, as if not being able to tolerate passivity any longer, we are forced to acknowledge their brilliance as they pop into bright yellows, oranges, and reds.

Acknowledging this awakened brilliance, many Michiganders take to the roads to “ooh” and “ah” over this wardrobe change. We call these road trips “color tours.”

Marlene and I recently took our color tour up to the Harbor Springs, Michigan area for a drive along route M-119, also called the “Tunnel of Trees.” Focusing on these beauties opened up a compartment in my brain where tree memories are stored. So, here are a few of my cranial memories. I think psychologists call this cluster of thoughts a “schema.” The following are excerpts from my schema on trees as they were organized in my head. Click on the titles to link with the full text.

The first was Joyce Kilmer’s poem, “Trees.”

“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.”

Then came words from a picture book by Shel Silverstein called “The Giving Tree.”

"Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy. and every day the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest..." 

After that, the “Tree Song” by musician Ken Medema came to mind.

“I saw a tree by the riverside/One day as I walked along,/Straight as an arrow,/And pointing to the sky,/Growing tall and strong./ ‘How do you grow so tall and strong?’/ I said to the riverside tree./ This is the song my tree friend sang to me…”

The “Tree Song” led my thoughts to a biblical song, Psalm 1, where a righteous person is compared to a healthy tree.

“Blessed is the one (vs.1)…

whose delight is in the law of the Lord (vs. 2)…

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season (vs. 3).”

The words of Christ also came to mind.

“So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17).

Thinking further, I am finding trees throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. For example, the Tree of Life appears in Genesis, Proverbs, and Revelation and at least 19 Bible books have references to trees.

Finally, I started brainstorming about the many functions of the trees that are all around us. Trees are:

bearers of blossoms and fruit,

changed into fossil fuels,

chopped into firewood,

converted into treehouses,

cut into lumber,

designed to be climbed,

made into furniture,

preservers of soil,

preventers of erosion,

providers of oxygen,

contributors of pulp for paper,

nests for the birds,

sources of maple syrup,

supporters of wildlife, and

symbols of Christmas.

While the above “tree-mendous” thoughts have “branched out” in a number of different directions, they point to the wonderful role of trees in teaching us about life. They remind us of beauty, service to others, nourishment, strength, and righteousness. They are icons of nature that God uses to tell us about himself and how we should be rooted, grow, and bear fruit.

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The tree-related images in this blog are as follows.

--Michigan’s tunnel of trees

--A view of our house with trees in the background (7^th house from the left)

--Tree of Life by Joel Schoon Tanis in atrium of Fellowship Reformed Church, Holland, Michigan

--Cartoon about supporting and being supported by trees