“A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying God.”
Thomas Merton
Trappist Monk
This is the story of salvation history told from the perspective of each of most important trees in the Bible. As each tree will tell you, there is only one tree that could be called the greatest.
The Tree of Life
In the middle of the Garden I
gave them fruit of eternal life.
Things were good with them both at first,
then they took a turn for the worst.
They ate from the forbidden tree.
It was God’s will that they be free.
I was not good enough to eat.
They choose instead a deathly treat.
So here I sit now all alone.
Waiting for them to atone.
The greatest tree God called to be?
I’m sad to say it is not me.
The Tree of Knowledge
All my knowledge of good or ill
could not stop that old devil.
“Do not eat the forbidden fruit,”
God said so very resolute.
My fruit was pleasing to their eyes.
I could not shield them from his lies.
“You shall not die,” said the snake.
“Eat of it and you will awake.”
She plucked a sample from my arm
She thought it would be of no harm.
To her husband she gave one too.
Their eyes were opened. They saw things new.
They now were filled with such great shame
But neither one took any blame.
So God cast them from the garden.
From now on their hearts would harden.
The greatest tree God called to be?
I’m sad to say it is not me.
Noah’s Ark
I was a tree of gopherwood.
I saved as many as I could.
The Lord God grieved the human’s sin.
It seemed as though the devil would win.
God made a plan to wipe them out.
A man named Noah was devout.
Noah made me into an ark.
A boat he crafted to embark.
A pair of every animal
he did gather in the hull.
The earth was flooded to the max.
God’s punishment did not relax.
For forty days rain did fall down.
Such destruction made them frown.
From the water they were saved.
If only others had behaved.
The rainbow came. The dove came back.
For awhile they were on track.
But still death came upon them all.
An ark cannot undo the Fall.
The greatest tree God called to be?
I’m sad to say it is not me.
The Staff of Moses
I was at first a simple staff.
Hear my story. Do not laugh.
When Moses saw the burning bush.
God made me a snake with a whoosh.
“Moses, take this rod of thine,
and with it you will make a sign.”
Moses went to see the Pharaoh,
Who after many signs said, “Go!”
Then he chased God’s chosen people.
But to God there is no equal.
Moses raised me towards the sea.
A path was made to make them free.
Then they wandered in the desert.
Saying, “Give water. Just a squirt.”
So with me Moses struck a rock.
Water came forth with such a shock.
But Moses put his faith in me.
When to him they made their plea.
I could not quench God’s people’s thirst.
Sinfulness made them fear the worst.
“Give us water lest we die!”
“Command the rock,” was God’s reply.
But Moses struck the rock bed twice.
God’s order was very concise.
To never see the Promised Land
Poor Moses got God’s reprimand.
The greatest tree God called to be?
I’m sad to say it is not me.
The Manger
Many animals I did feed.
Until God called me to his need.
A man and woman came one night.
Space inside the inn was finite.
On top of that the woman bore
a child with whom she did labor.
She gave birth to God’s only Son.
The babe that came saved everyone.
So she laid him in my manger.
Here and now there was no danger.
But the boy would become a man.
It was a part of God’s great plan.
I was there for his joyful birth.
But only death restores the earth.
The greatest tree God called to be?
I’m sad to say it is not me.
The Cross
They cut me down to punish men.
A sad existence I had then.
Until one day they strapped me to
The one who makes all things new.
More than a man, that was clear.
He faced his death without fear.
So he carried me to a hill.
A final blow to the devil.
They nailed his hands and feet to me.
By these wounds he made all men free.
They raised me up. He hung so high.
For now it was his time to die.
I was to be a Tree of Death.
But something changed with his last breath.
After years of great sin and strife.
I became the new Tree of Life.
I am the way to heaven’s gates.
Such joy and love for you awaits.
All you must do is bear your cross.
In Christ find strength for any loss.
The greatest tree God called to be?
It is in the shape of a “T.”
