The trees are on fire

In the majestic mountain forests of my homeland, New Zealand, there are four species of outstanding endemic flora called beech trees. There are red, silver, black and hard beech varieties. These trees grow along the mountain chains of both major islands as well as many of our off-shore islands. Native birds such as kiwi, kaka, the Southern Boobook or morepork, (an owl that makes a sound like its name) kea (the only mountain parrot in the world) rifleman and yellow-head, together with our two species of native bat, regularly make their nests in mature beech trees, which can grow to an impressive 65 meters (200 ft) tall. Before people arrived here, about the only part of the land that was not afforested was the mountain tops, sadly now less than 20% of the land area retains its virgin forest cover. 

Fire blight

Two species of beech trees are infected with unusual pests, which fill the forest with a very distinct, cloying sweet smell… Commonly called fire blight, they are in fact “honey dew” insects, of the Homiptera order of insects (those with sap sucking mouthparts e.g. aphids, scale insects etc) that produce a secretion that tastes as sweet as it smells. Known in other parts of the world as “pine honey”, “forest or fir honey” this secretion eventually makes it way (via bees) into vast quantities of dark, rich honey that is exported to Europe and America.    

The fire blight that darkens the trunks and branches of the trees, making them look like they have been ravaged by forest fires, is a black sooty mould growing on the surplus nectar exuding over the plant and sometimes even the ground. The trees are generally infected after they reach a height of about 4 meters, (13 ft) and remain infected until the blight eventually kills its host. Trees that should otherwise live a thousand years or more seldom make it past their second century, falling victim to a microscopic bug…slower than a forester’s chainsaw, but just as effective.

Humanity is also infected with fire blight, and it has greatly reduced our lifespan, felling most of us before we reach even our first century! That blight first appeared in a tree as well…

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, “Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”? And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” And the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not surely die.” Genesis 3:1-4  

As a result of that pivotal moment in time we lost the “right” to eat from the tree of life, and that will not be restored until the end of time, and then only to those who have “overcome” the dark lord.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give (the right) to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7 MKJV

 We can build some spectacular bridges, but there is one gulf that 
we cannot span on our own.   

The only way to attain the “right” to eat from that tree is through the death of a man on a tree. The cross was a tree, hewn and shaped by a man’s hands to be the instrument of death. Jesus, the only human who knew no sin, became sin for us. He took our place on the cross. He took our sins and paid for them in full. He made the way to God for mankind. He is the bridge that spans the otherwise un-crossable gulf between us and Almighty God. Jesus was God’s perfect sacrifice, given to mankind to redeem us from the curse of sin and death, separation forever from God.  

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.

Act 5:30 NKJV
 



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