The size of the seed from which a tree grows has no relationship to the size of a tree. Douglas firs in Oregon and Washington may grow 200 feet or higher and eight to twelve feet in diameter. Yet like the redwoods and sequoias in California, they start from a very small seed. The largest of all trees, a sequoia known as General Sherman, started almost 4000 years ago from a seed so tiny (1/16 of an inch long) it takes 3000 of them to weigh an ounce! Although lightning knocked about 100 feet off its top, it is still 275 feet tall and more than 30 feet across at the base perhaps twice the width of the living room in your home.
Other parts of the country have big trees, too. For instance, the 400-year-old, champion white oak near Chesapeake Bay in Maryland spreads its branches 158 feet across. Like all oaks it began as a little acorn, perhaps buried by a squirrel and forgotten.
A tree seed, like all other seeds, is a storehouse of all the parts that will grow from it. Nothing can Change it to anything else. As it germinates, new cells form the parts of the plant that will develop from it. These cells take over their individual work as if told what to do, which is exactly the case as God the Creator has arranged the work of each. Some form bark, some wood tissue, some branches; others produce leaves, fruit or more seeds and some form roots. This process continues until a full-grown tree will contain billions of cells, each faithfully doing its duty. Evolution could never bring such a wonderful thing into being. It is the Creator’s creative design.
Where sliding soil causes a young tree to tip outward, a special message is given to certain cells to make an “elbow” so it will grow straight up again. When this happens the trunk stops growing on the inside while the outer part keeps growing until the straightening is completed and then they work together again. The next time you see a tree this shape think how wonderfully God arranged this growth correction. Actually the trunk becomes stronger at this point than the rest of the tree, just as a boy or girl who admits his or her mistakes to the Lord Jesus and asks His help to correct them becomes a stronger person. The Psalmist said, “I will confess my transgressions [sins] unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Psa. 32:55I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. (Psalm 32:5).
The Bible also speaks of those who love the Lord in this way: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hone the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river.” Jer. 17:7,87Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. 8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7‑8). If your trust is in the Lord Jesus, then this is His description of you, too.
ML-05/12/1985