A Redwood Tree Parable

A Redwood Tree Parable

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            Last year I determined that I would take a real vacation this year. I wouldn’t stay around the house trying to get things done I hadn’t gotten around to doing. I would save at least one time of vacation where I wouldn't see family members two states away. I would see and do something special that I had never seen or done before. I would go to California and see the Redwoods and the Giant Sequoias. I would see Redwoods at the Muir Woods just north of San Francisco, a little ways past the Golden Gate Bridge. I had this song by Van Morrison running through my head.  I was about to see some of the world's tallest trees. The Redwoods in Muir Woods are not as tall as some of the other Redwood trees elsewhere, but some of them stand taller than a football field long, and taller than the Statue of Liberty. The more I found out about the Redwood trees and their cousins the Giant Sequoias, the more I could have imagined Jesus speaking parables about them if the land in which he walked had been north of the San Francisco Bay along the Pacific Ocean instead of up from Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea.

            Perhaps Jesus would have told a story about faith the size of a Redwood seed had his listeners known about the smallness of the Redwood seed.

“From these small seeds" – information posted in Muir Woods north of San Francisco

 

            Jesus might have described how the small cone of a Redwood tree, a cone usually less than an inch long containing seeds so small that it takes a hundred thousand redwood seeds to weigh a pound. Yet what can such a faith grow into when that small seed takes root in the ground, is nourished, watered, receives enough sunlight and lives out its days? Jesus might have described the possibility of how our faith begun from such a small beginning can grow into something we can’t imagine. We should not think of such a parable as hyperbole. It is not presumption to imagine that given to God our faith will grow and grow unto something astonishing, wonderful, and beautiful in the day of Christ Jesus. Our faith will grow into something wonderful not because of the size of our faith but because God is the one who watches over us as we grow in his care. The day will come for every Christian in the day of Christ; that if we could see the person we will become in Christ’s care when the process is finished we would be tempted to worship our final appearance on that day. The Redwood grows from such little seeds, a hundred thousand to a pound into trees standing this tall:

            Maybe Jesus or St. Paul would have used the Redwood tree as an example of how much we who follow Christ need the lives of other believers to help us remain stable. I went to California not knowing much about the Redwoods. I had in my mind that a tree that stood hundreds of feet tall would have a massive tap root reaching great distances beneath the soil's surface. I discovered to my surprise that a Redwood does not have a deep tap root. A redwood might have a tap root at most ten feet deep. So how does a Redwood stand so tall when the storms and winds blow hard in the hundreds of years that they must be protected from great winds? They have lateral roots that spread a little beneath the surface of the soil. The secret of the stability of the Redwood is that the trees grow in clusters and families. The roots of one Redwood tree intertwine with the roots of the other trees in the cluster. Instead of the roots of a single tree anchoring a tree in place, the root systems of all the trees in a cluster mingle and wrap around each other, until overlapping and intertwining the root systems of all the trees in the cluster are helping secure each other in their place. The redwoods have strength in their being gathered together in a solidly knit community.

 

 

            St. Paul might have described the Redwoods and the Giant Sequoias as trees that stood the fiery trials that came their way. Redwoods and Giant Sequoias do not survive for a thousand years in California without being able to survive an occasionally strong blazing forest fire. They not only survive fires but come out of a fire in better condition than they went into the fire. The other vegetation at the floor of a Redwood forest is burned off, while the Redwoods survive. After the fire with less vegetation to compete for the soil’s water or mineral nourishment the Redwoods and also the Giant Sequoias have a more hospitable setting to continue to grow in their centuries of life. It is an amazing sight to see a tree with burned out portions on their bases while the tree lives a healthy life for centuries more.

 

 

            My favorite Giant Sequoia tree that I saw was one called the Telescope Tree in Yosemite National Park. It had been struck by lightning sometime in its past. Explorers found it in a hollowed out condition because of the lightning that had struck the tree. They discovered the tree still living a healthy life in the late 1800's. The tree is still alive and healthy today. I took this photograph from inside the base of the Telescope Tree, having walked into the tree in the hollowed out portion of the base. Here is the scene looking upwards in the tree where the lightning had burned out a portion of the tree from the earth to the sky above.

 

 

            The outside of the tree looked like this:

 

            The Redwoods and Giant Sequoias provide astonishing parables. They provide lessons for us regarding how we might stand the test of time.

            It does not take a giant seed to grow a giant tree, for the seed of faith grows in accordance with its being planted in nourishing soil, watered, and watched over until it grows into the stature granted to it by its creator.

           These trees stand secure because each of them have their roots connected to all the other roots within their cluster until it is not by one individual tree's roots that the tree flourishes but by the root systems of all the trees in the community. Stability is built upon the contributions of one another in Christ. Each tree bears its own burden and the burden of all the other trees in the community.

           Finally the redwoods and the Giant Sequoias endure because they are well prepared for fiery trials. These trials instead of destroying them allow them to grow. I am sure that if I knew more about these giants in nature’s realm there would be more parables to learn from them.