3/9/07: How God is like a tree. (From the Deep Thoughts department)

I was riding my bike today and saw a large tree that had been cut down. I do some of my best meditating while on my bike, and I'd been thinking about God, so I came up with this comparison between God and a tree. I'm not sure how truly valuable this thought is, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway!

A tree is quite different from a human being, to state the obvious. We tend to anthropomorphize God, to conceive of Him as similar to a human. And rightly so! After all, the Bible tells us we are created in His image. But here's where He is more like a tree than like you or me: if we were to separate a part of our bodies--say a finger--from our bodies, then that part of our body would die; it would cease to have life. Not so with a tree: when a part of a tree is separated from the larger organism, the part that is separated retains life in itself. At least with most trees, if you take a cutting from it and plant it in the right kind of soil with the right nutrients etc., it will flourish and become a tree in its own right.

Similarly, when we receive the Holy Ghost, it is as if God separates a piece of Himself and plants it in us. If we provide the right kind of soil, that Spirit (the very life of God in us!) will flourish and grow in our lives and bear fruit. On the other hand, if we do not nurture this life that God has given us, it can die. I have heard it said that someone's Holy Ghost can't die, because the life of God cannot die. However, the way I conceive of this personally is like the tree. The fact that a piece has been removed from the original tree does absolutely nothing to diminish the life in the original tree. Even if that new tree that came from the original becomes diseased and dies it in no way makes the original tree any less alive.

So is the life of God. When He plants His life in us by baptizing us with His Spirit, we can nurture it so that the Spirit thrives within us, or we can starve it, mistreat it, not water it--or maybe even uproot it by actions that are displeasing to God--until it dies within us. Though that planting of the Spirit in us may die, it in NO way diminishes the life that exists independently in God.

No wonder the Psalmist compares the righteous man to a tree in 1:3--"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

God's life is a precious gift that keeps on giving. It will bear fruit in our own lives, and in turn we can use that Spirit to water others that they may yield fruit as well!

Jn. 5:26 says "As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." I believe that, ultimately, overcomers will be given that kind of life as well. Then men will truly be trees of life in God's garden! What a goal to strive for!