Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made (Psalm 145:3-9)

Having just returned from the tree-blessed Pacific Northwest, I’m still in awe of these treasures from the hand of our Creator.  No wonder that after people, trees are the most often mentioned living thing in the Bible.  While they are indeed a pleasure to the eye, I’m more impressed by the work that all trees together accomplish and the benefits they provide for the remainder of the earth’s biosphere (the realm in which the living things of the earth exist). Understanding how important trees are to all of life, we may decide to change the old adage to “a tree is man’s best friend.” Here’s a list of some of the things trees do for us:

• Provide oxygen
• Moderate temperature
• Enhance rainfall—yet prevent erosion
• Collect and absorb dust and other atmospheric pollutants
• Protect the earth from rapid climate change
• Produce and protect healthy soil
• Provide food
• Provide shelter and/or cover for many animals and birds
• Provide protection for thousands of species of
sun-sensitive plants
• Provide healing products
• Provide building products
• Provide paper products
• Provide wood
• Provide fuel
• Provide sensory stimulation and the experience of beauty
• Provide living fences that hold back drifting sand and snow
• Reduce light intensity from the sun
• Provide privacy
• Protect watersheds for communities
• Produce a sense of rootedness and community

One of the joys of examining the book of God’s Works is discovering the evidence of the Creator’s unmatched intelligence and incredible ingenuity. When one examines the miracle of the tree and its function, it’s hard to believe there are scientists who deny the existence of a Creator.

The first amazing fact about the tree’s physiology is its critical part in the carbon cycle. In essence, the tree takes in sunlight, gases from the air, and water, and it produces wood, leaves, fruit, and other elements critical for all life on earth. This is the process of  “photosynthesis,” a scientific term from Latin, which means “to put together with light.” And that’s exactly what happens in trees. They’re put together with light!

A greatly simplified description of the process is this: Tree leaves are green because they contain a vital substance called chlorophyll. This chlorophyll receives sunlight and mixes it with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water that has been drawn up from the ground through the roots, trunk, branches, and stems. This mix is turned into the carbohydrate glucose, a simple sugar. This sugar becomes the food for the tree, which through its God-given mechanisms manufactures all its critical structures—mostly wood and leaves. In the process of doing all this work, the living factory happens to produce atmospheric oxygen as a byproduct. Blessed be the tree!

So as we putter through each day breathing out carbon dioxide and flooding the air with it from our motorized vehicles, factories, and stoves, the trees and other green plants are “breathing” it in and then “exhaling” oxygen. In a sense, trees and you and I are a team that, through give and take, support each other in our work—work that can give praise to our Creator.

Trees also demonstrate God’s lavish provision. Not only do they build their own structure and give all living things oxygen, they also produce a surplus of carbohydrates in the form of sweet sap, healing leaves and oils, and nourishing fruit, nuts, and seeds. The wood we use for our homes, our furniture, our fireplaces, our paper, and thousands of other products is the result of the work of this amazing living machine.

According to Encarta, these gifts from the tree and other photosynthesizing organisms are so abundant that about 170 billion metric tons of extra carbohydrates are produced each year. That’s a total of 30 metric tons for every person on earth! Included in this is the approximately 100 billion cubic feet of wood harvested annually from the world’s forests.  If we are careful and don’t over-consume or harm forest ecosystems, there’s no reason we cannot keep our trees and our tree products

The LORD] makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains.  They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work.  He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.The trees of the LORD are well watered,  the cedars of Lebanon that he planted (Psalm 104:10-16).

In my last post I suggested that we ought to be seeking our Creator’s “good earthkeeping seal of approval.” How have we done as earthkeepers? In many ways and places, not too well. Consider the unique island of Madagascar off the east coast of southern Africa as it was described by G. Tyler Miller, adjunct professor of human ecology at St. Andrews Presbyterian College. In his book Living In The Environment, Miller writes the following:

Because of [Madagascar’s] astounding biological diversity, this Texas-sized island is considered a crown jewel among Earth’s ecosystems—a biological superpower. . . . An estimated 160,000 species [are] unique to this island, mostly in its vanishing eastern rainforests. Unique species include 80% of its 10,000 flowering plants (including 1,000 orchids), 66% of the world’s species of chameleons, 800 butterfly species, half of the island’s birds, and all its reptiles and mammals. Madagascar’s plant and animal species are also among the world’s most endangered, mostly because of loss of habitat from slash-and-burn agriculture on poor soils fueled by rapid population growth. Since humans arrived about 1,500 years ago, 84% of its tropical seasonal forests and over 66% of its rainforests have been cut for cropland, fuelwood, and lumber, leaving blood-red gullies and streams and vast eroded fields and hillsides. Madagascar is now the world’s most eroded country.

This picture of loss could be added to hundreds more that would graphically illustrate how we have failed to care for the natural world our God has entrusted to us. Even though there are many instances in which people have become aware of the damage they were doing to forests and have dramatically reversed harmful deforestation, the broad picture is still one of serious forest degradation worldwide. It may not be surprising to followers of Christ that the world in general disregards biblical mandates and foundational principles, but the truth is that the church is also responsible for the care and protection of God’s good earth.

This often-ignored responsibility was first popularly noted among evangelical Christians by Francis Schaeffer, who wrote a significant book about the issue in 1970. It was titled Pollution And The Death Of Man: A Christian View Of Ecology. It was a challenge to the church to apply biblical principles to the world’s environmental crises—including the state of our forests. Here are some of Schaeffer’s insights:

A truly biblical Christianity has a real answer to the ecological crisis. It offers a balanced and healthy attitude toward nature, arising from the truth of its creation by God; it offers the hope here and now of a substantial healing in nature of some of the results of the Fall arising from the truth of redemption in Christ. In each of the alienations arising from the Fall, the Christians, individually and corporately, should consciously in practice be a healing, redemptive factor—in the separation of man from God, of man from himself, of man from man, of man from nature, and of nature from nature. A Christian-based science and technology should consciously try to see nature substantially healed, while waiting for the future complete healing at Christ’s return.

While the church is still slow in recovering our understanding of our lost stewardship mandate, there are some effective things being done by a number of people, organizations, and institutions that are taking both revelations of God (His Word and His works) more seriously these days.

Realizing our stewardship role as children of God, how then should we live in relation to the earth’s trees and forests? I don’t think it’s out of order to suggest these activities for followers of God’s Word:

• Learn more about trees in order to appreciate their role in your life.

• Remember the trees’ relationship to people as mutual creations of God.

• Remind yourself regularly of your responsibility to be a good earthkeeper.

• As a voter, be more aware of your government’s forest policies.

• As a consumer and/or stockholder, become informed about corporate practices regarding your nation’s forests.

• Join with the trees in praise of your Creator.

Dean is currently in the Pacific Northwest and is making an informal study of the great trees of that region. Today’s “Ambling” post is on the big-leaf maple, one of the world’s great trees for furniture—and, as Genesis said about the trees of the Garden, “pleasing to the eye.”

God created man in his own image,  in the image of God he created him;  male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:27-28)

When you are surrounded, as I have been for the past two weeks, by some of earth’s most magnificent trees, it is hard to keep in mind that many areas of the world that once were clothed and carpeted by trees and forests are now denuded and desertified. One reason is that we have forgotten what has been entrusted to us. The principle of responsible care of the earth is found first in the words of the Old Testament. There we find that God is the Creator of the earth (Gen. 1), He is the owner of the earth (Ps. 24:1), and He loves the earth (Ps. 145:9,13). Further, God clearly delegated to us the responsibility of dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:27-28; Ps. 8).

As theologian Francis Schaeffer pointed out early in the 1970s, however, while God has put the earth in our hands, such oversight is still under His greater dominion and care. The logical conclusion of these truths from Scripture is that God, who made, owns, and loves what He created, has in His love permitted people to manage and use the material creation. He is the Landlord; we are His caretakers.

That role is pictured beautifully by the Greek word for “steward”: oikonomeo. This is the same word from which we get the word economy. Economics was originally considered to be the practical operations of a household in which the steward oversaw the production, distribution, and consumption on the landlord’s estate. If we recovered that same understanding of the personal relationship of the steward to the landlord, and the steward’s responsibility to the landlord, we’d more likely handle our Landlord’s material goods in a much more responsible manner.

The Bible is unique among virtually all other ancient scriptures, partly because its beginning chapters so clearly state the foundational purposes for mankind (Gen. 1:26–2:15). One can paraphrase the mandate like this: The creation was very good (Gen. 1:31), and it was perfectly prepared by God to be given over to people so they could develop all its potentialities to the glory of God and to the benefit of all creatures in keeping with the will of God.

More specific direction was given in Genesis 2:15 where Adam was instructed to “tend” and “keep” the Garden of Eden. The extended meaning of the two Hebrew words used here is extremely rich and telling: “Tend” (abad) means to till, work, serve, work for, and/or make self the servant of. “Keep” (shamar) means to have charge of, guard, save life, protect, preserve, observe, refrain, abstain, and/or celebrate. While this command was given in relationship to the Garden, most Christian theologians emphasize that such control was to be extended by Adam and Eve and their descendants to the whole earth.

In essence, the Genesis mandates clearly spell out our role as keepers of the earth—stewards of the true Landlord. One could say that we should be working for God’s “Good Earthkeeping stamp of approval.”

This post is a revised excerpt from Dean’s Discovery Series booklet “Celebrating the Wonder of a Tree.”  You can follow this link to find the booklet online.  You may also obtain a copy or two without charge by following the ordering guidelines on the RBC Discovery Series site.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:1-2).

This is the beginning of my last week at Bluebell Springs, my brother and sister-in-law’s place on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of the upper Puget Sound in Washington. This is a world of wild trees and wild water, which are vitally linked together and to us—a fact that added angst to life here when the water tank level dropped dramatically low not too long ago. It was resolved by the digging of a new well.

The importance of water to life (there would be no life on earth without it!) got me to thinking about biblical references to the vital substance. No doubt the most significant reference to water in the Bible—perhaps in all of human literature—is found in the Genesis account of creation. That’s where we find the foundational statement about the connection of life to water: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:1-2).

The word deep in the second verse is a Hebrew term that also refers to water—the almost fathomless depths of the oceans. This image of the protecting Spirit of God brooding over the pregnant waters of earth as the Creator gave origin to all of life is paralleled by the development of the life of every human being born on that very same earth. The hovering Holy Spirit guided the development of life on the earth just as lovingly as He does every human soul nurtured in the placental waters of its mother.

Certainly Francis of Assisi had this image of nurture in mind when he wrote, “Be praised, my Lord, for our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains us and keeps us.” People of God’s Book shouldn’t feel pressured to discard this beautiful picture of the primal earth as a nurturing mother. Rather, we ought to boldly proclaim that our Father God through the eternal wisdom and power of God the Son and the superintendence of God the Holy Spirit created the earth with the capacity to nourish all life it gives birth to. Such life could not exist without the miracle of water. The root meaning of the Latin word for “nourish” is “to give milk to.” From this we can see that St. Francis’ metaphor “Mother Earth” is not based on a pantheistic understanding, but on natural reality.

As a follower of Christ, Francis properly gave praise to his Lord and God, as did the psalmist: Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He also established them forever and ever; He made a decree which shall not pass away (Ps. 148:1-6).

The human embryo, over the course of 9 months, grows into a mature infant as it “swims” in its placental water sac. This fact provides us the simplest and most likely explanation for Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus that “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn. 3:5-6). People are first born naturally—out of water. And those who place their faith in Jesus Christ are born a “second time”—born of the Spirit.

Praise God for water and for His brooding Spirit—both vital in making us material and spiritual beings.