The Wonders of God’s Creation
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass... and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind... and it was so.” Genesis 1:11.
It was on the fifth day of creation that trees appeared at the command of the Creator, some no larger than a bush and others immense like the giant redwood of California. Included in these were the banyans, so surprising in appearance that they always amaze visitors who see them for the first time in India, Hawaii and some tropical islands.
This tree has a most unusual way of growing. Its branches grow extremely long, and then bare roots sprout from the branches. These roots take nourishment from the air and eventually grow down to bury themselves in the soil. This provides a new source of food and soon enlarges the bare root into a strong, upright support for the branch from which it grew, helping it to grow longer and to send more and more roots down to the ground.
The result is that old, mature trees look like they are made up of a great number of younger ones (although really part of the original). People or animals can easily walk through these. But, inch by inch, over a period of time, these supports enlarge into trunks and press against each other and the mother tree, continually adding to its size. Because of this the trees eventually become bigger in circumference than in height, and some have been found to be more than a third of a mile around. The largest known banyan tree has 350 large trunks and over 3000 small ones.
These trees not only provide welcome shade, but also produce a bright red fig-like fruit which, if undisturbed, produces pretty flowers that attract insects to pollinate them, just as bees and other insects do for flowers and fruit buds. This fruit is not suitable for man to eat, but birds and bats find it a welcome food supply. A bird, carrying one of these fruits to another tree (not necessarily another banyan), may let some of it fall into a crotch in the tree below its perch. There, with the benefit of mist or occasional showers, a seed will sprout and take root, soon developing its own long branches which grow just like the others, sending roots to the ground and starting the process that eventually will turn into another huge banyan tree.
It is certain that no one person, no matter how far he may have traveled, has ever seen all forms of creation placed on the earth by the Creator. But they are all known to Him, as a Bible verse tells us: “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” Acts 15:18.
Even more important is the fact that God knows all about each of us and wants us to trust in His love, as another verse assures us: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7. Make sure that you are one who trusts in Him.
ML-11/12/1989