Thought for the Week - 6th November 2022

Dear Friends, 

The BBC News website this week reported that ‘a “magnificent” Surrey yew tree which is thought to be more than 500 years old has been named the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year’. Growing in the grounds of the ruined Waverley Abbey near Farnham, the first Cistercian monastery founded in Britain 900 years ago, Tom Reed from the Woodland Trust said, “It is great to see that this magnificent tree has been recognised as Tree of the Year 2022 and the way the tree is rooted within the ruins of the abbey is a great symbol of the fact that our ancient trees are intertwined with other aspects of our cultural heritage”. There is no doubt that trees are beautiful and amazing, and particularly at this time of year as the autumnal colours burst onto the scene, they add so much to our environment and our enjoyment of the natural world. Trees are the oldest living things on earth, some living as long as 10,000 years, and there are still trees alive today that were already ancient at the time of the stories of Jesus and the early church which we read about in the Bible. Indeed, trees play an important role in the pages of scripture. The Bible opens with a tree in the book of Genesis, we read of a tree in the first of the psalms, there is a family ‘tree’ at the beginning of the New Testament, and the Bible closes with the tree of life standing beside the river in the Holy City in the apostle John’s vision in Revelation. Other than people and God, trees are the most mentioned living thing in the Bible and in Proverbs 3:18, Wisdom is described as ‘a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed’. Also in the Old Testament Noah received an Olive branch, Abraham sat under the great trees of Mamre, and Moses stood before the burning bush barefoot. Jesus himself declared that the kingdom of heaven was like a tree in which the birds come and perch in its branches. And the Bible reminds us that trees communicate – so ‘the trees of the field clap their hands’ in Isaiah 55, ‘the trees of the forest sing’ in 1 Chronicles 16, and in Judges 9 they even argue among themselves. I was fascinated to read that research has shown that under every forest and wood there is a complex underground web of roots, fungi and bacteria helping connect trees and plants to one another, and which has become known as the ’wood wide web’. But perhaps for Christians the tree that we think of most is the tree on which Jesus was crucified – The Old Rugged Cross as the hymnwriter calls it – so that we might know life and forgiveness, redemption and hope.  

Grace and peace,

Neil 

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