Tree Trunk | Hebrews 12:2, Psalm 139:16

Day 3 of our tree study. We started by looking at tree seeds and then we looked at the importance of roots. Today we’re moving on to the trunk of a tree, specifically the rings inside of a tree trunk and the stories they tell.

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Transcription:

Guest Speaker: Eryn Lynum

Welcome to the Bible for Busy People podcast and day three of our tree study in the Bible. I’m Eryn Lynum, master naturalist, Bible teacher and author, and this week we began on day one by looking at tree seeds. Yesterday we considered the importance of roots, and today we’re moving on to the trunk of a tree, specifically the rings inside of a tree trunk and the stories they tell. Today is all about stories, tree stories, and what they teach us about our life stories. God is the best story writer. Hebrews 12:2 calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfector of faith and listen to Psalm 139:16. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. God has incredible stories for our lives and we can glimpse this in his design of trees.

Let me ask you a question. What is one of your favorite trees from childhood? Maybe it’s a tree that you built a fort in, or a tree that you climbed in down by the river, or maybe you lived in a city, but there’s a tree that was on your way to school that you walked by each day and maybe you remember that every year it erupted into these beautiful flowers. What is your favorite tree from childhood? I grew up in rural Wisconsin and our yard was just short of an acre. We moved to that house when I was five years old and there was this small pine tree at the front corner of the lot. It was about the same height as I was, and throughout my childhood I passed by that tree countless times, as I was walking to the post office or going to get ice cream at the ice cream shop down the road or riding my bike past on the way to the playground.

At age 17, I moved away to college, and so I had spent about 12 years with that pine tree. Well, when I was 31, so 14 years after I moved away, I returned to that house with my husband and our four kids. The house still belonged to our family and we had purchased it from my parents and we did a live-in rehab over five weeks and then got some renters into the house. But when I arrived in my childhood home, the pine tree at the corner of the lot was still there. Now it was much, much taller than I remembered it, and its limbs were spilling out over onto the sidewalk. But all this time as I was away getting a degree and marrying and having four children, that pine tree was still there, silently and steadily growing and counting time. If you cut down a tree, you can see inside of its trunk and you can count the rings, those concentric circle ridges on the inside, and you can see how many years old that tree is.

I love the way that Dr. Matthew Sleuth put it in his book, Reforesting Faith. He wrote, every time our be planet completes another circle around the sun, God gives every tree on earth a new ring. I don’t know exactly how many rings the pine tree in my childhood yard has, because thankfully it has not been cut down, but I know that 12 of those rings represent the years I spent playing in that yard. And another 14 rings in that tree reflect my time away from it. After I left home, this tree’s rings reflect my growing up. You see trees, hold stories. Trees rings tell us more than just its age. Trees can actually read like a book. The study of tree rings is called dendra chronology. That’s really two words put together. Dendrology is the scientific study of trees and woody plants. Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time.So dendra chronology truly is the study of tree rings, and the events they reflect. Studying tree rings and the margins between their ridges, we can actually see where there was a slim year without much water. When a tree’s growth was stunted. We can also see in wide spaces between the ridges representing years of plenty and substantial growth. Looking at tree rings, we can even see scars from catastrophic events like lightning strikes or wildfires. Okay, so let’s get metaphorical here. If a scientist were to study the tree rings of your life story, what might they find? Would there be years of drought or years of plenty? Would there be scars? One thing we need to understand about the growth and chronology of trees is that growth does not stop after slim years or catastrophic events. We can see in a tree’s rings that even after hard years, a tree can have years of wonderful growth.

God created trees to be resilient, and hard times are not the end of their story. Just like trees, we can experience incredible growth after hardship, and we can even be made more strong and resilient and healthy through difficult times. Listen to Romans 5:3-5. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

As we endure hardship, we can know that God is not done writing our stories. Philippians 1:6 assures us of this. We read, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Take time today to consider your story. Look over the tree rings of your life. Can you see where there was a season of drought or tragedy that led to growth afterward? And how has God used hard times to strengthen your faith? Tomorrow we’re moving from trunk to branch, all the way to the leaves, and we’re learning how tree leaves filter the air around us and how likewise God’s word filters our thoughts.

Dear Creator, God, thank you for trees. Thank you for writing our stories and thank you for helping us to grow after hard times. Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to the Bible for Busy People. If you need prayer or you’re ready to go a little deeper in your faith, we’ve posted some resources for you in our show notes. We’d love for you to share this podcast with a friend and leave us a review. It helps us reach even more people with the hope of Jesus. This podcast is part of Purposely, a podcast network designed with practical podcasts to help you find and live in God’s purpose for your life. Find more podcasts that will recharge you at onpurposely.com.