Arbor Day: The Trees of God

We need to remind ourselves that we as Christians should lead the way in a balanced stewardship of our environment. After all, it is our Creator God who brought our planet and cosmos into existence and splashed it with every color imaginable—especially green! So while God is not green, He certainly does have a creative green thumb! It is evident all around us, especially during spring when green is bursting out all over.

We also need to remind ourselves that God’s first home for man was not in an urban environment with all of its skyscrapers, concrete, steel, and pollution. No, it was a lush green garden called the Garden of Eden. The root word in the Hebrew means “delight, pleasure.” So the Garden of Eden was literally a spiritual and environmental house of pleasure for Adam and Eve.

Sadly, it was soon polluted by the deadliest toxins of all—sin and self! Pleasure was exchanged for pain and delight turned into decay. Soon, death invaded every area of man’s existence: his relationship with God, his relationship with his spouse, and his relationship with his environment. Man was expelled from his garden paradise and we have all lived “east of Eden” ever since.

And also since that time, man has continued to pursue the fruit of that same tree. He continues to believe and worship knowledge as the source of life. To quote again the Apostle Paul, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans 1:22–23).

Once again, please don’t misunderstand me. I am vitally concerned about the environment! But we Christians need to be leading the way and setting the example of a biblically balanced approach to the stewardship of our environment.

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Arbor Day—Last Friday in April (states may vary)

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground— trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:9

When we start to talk about trees, usually some particular tree comes to our mind’s eye. It may be a special one from our childhood: some tree we loved to climb in, a tree we hung a swing from, a special one we built a treehouse in, one in whose bark we carved our initials and those of a sweetheart’s, or one that we fell out of and broke an arm like I did!

The study of trees is one of the most exciting and insightful Bible studies you will ever undertake. Unfortunately, though, it is one of the many subjects that we seldom take the time to seriously delve into—or, dare I say, climb into!

However, once the veil has been lifted from our eyes concerning trees in God’s Word, we are overwhelmed with their prominence and significance throughout the whole of the Bible. There are some 350 references to trees in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Literally from the first page to the last page of the Bible—Genesis 1 to Revelation 22—trees are used to communicate great spiritual truths to us. They are some of God’s most beautiful and graphic living parables of biblical principles!

In Genesis, we read of God’s original garden called Eden. It was filled with “trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” In the midst of that garden there were two special trees: the “tree of life” and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). The primal temptation was associated with that second tree. In

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