BP85
The Bible begins with the tree of life (Genesis 2) in the Garden of Eden, and ends with the tree of life (Revelation 22) in the heavenly New Jerusalem. In between the bookends of Genesis and Revelation, we read about many other trees in the Bible. Noah had his olive branch; Elijah had his broom tree where he wanted God to take his life; Abraham sat under the oaks of Mamre; Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree; the disciples prayed with Jesus among the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Notably, wisdom is referred to as a tree in Proverbs 3:18: She [wisdom] is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.
Most notably, sadly, gloriously– Jesus died on a tree!
Someone pointed out that trees are mentioned in the Bible more than any other living thing with the exception of God and people. Interestingly, trees are like their Creator: they exist to give not to take.
Moving on beyond the occurrence of trees in the Bible, how many of you have heard about the amazing Chinese bamboo tree? Some details I’ve heard about this specific tree seem to be true while others sound rather mythical. Let’s take a minute to separate the facts from the mythical elements.
It is fact that all species of bamboo have been declared to be plants not trees. Specifically, bamboo belongs to the Bambusoideae subfamily of the perennial evergreen grass family. Yes, bamboo is not a tree but is the fastest growing grass on the planet. Who would have thought it? Since many of the larger woody varieties of bamboo do look like skinny trees, they are often referred to as “bamboo trees.”
An interesting fact about one variety of the Chinese bamboo “tree” is that according to The Guinness Book of World Records it is capable of growing 35” inches a day! That’s 1.5 inches an hour! If you sit down beside bamboo grass and watch very closely, you can see it grow right before your eyes!
Yet another fact is that the tallest bamboo tree/grass can grow higher than 130’ even though it does not grow in diameter or height after 60 days. Two months of growth and it is done!
Other miscellaneous facts about bamboo are that it can sequester a lot of carbon; it filters and slows the flow of water (which leads some people to believe that bamboo could be a sustainable wastewater treatment option); it is amazingly strong and flexible (some people use it to make bicycles); it is virtually fire-proof; and its very shallow but densely clumped roots hold soil together well thus preventing soil erosion.
So much for the factual Chinese bamboo grass. Let’s move on to the mythical bamboo tree.
There are a number of fictions surrounding this mythical version. One I have heard is that the seed of the mythical Chinese bamboo tree is so hard that it takes many years for it to put out shoots. In fact, it takes five years for any shoots to break the surface of the ground, and if you don’t water the doggone thing every day, it will die. Talk about finicky.
But the hardness of the seed is not the only reason the mythical Chinese bamboo tree takes so long to grow. The other reason is that an extensive root system is spreading, unseen, beneath the ground during those five years to support the rapid growth that will suddenly occur in the fifth year.
This mythical Chinese bamboo tree has been embraced by many people as a metaphor for personal or business growth that demands patience and perseverance. Occasionally, I alluded to it with clients who were struggling with the lack of observable psychological and emotional growth in their lives.
I reminded them that, like the mythical Chinese bamboo tree, their observable progress must be preceded by internal development akin to roots fanning out far and wide to support the towering 130’ growth of their psyches that is soon to come. Patience is required because the massive visible and vertical growth of the self must always be grounded in the development of an extensive horizontal and invisible root system in the heart.
While the mythical Chinese bamboo tree is, in fact, not to be found in the real world—it is not true that you must wait five years for the bamboo seed to grow and the roots do not run very deep or wide since bamboo is a grass and not a tree—another tree in the real world does have more extensive roots.
Please indulge me in a brief digression . . .
The root system of this real tree does not include a taproot that grows downward to great depth. In fact, its vertical growth is only 6-12’ deep. However, its roots do fan out horizontally a hundred feet or more in every direction. Also, if water is in the vicinity, roots from this tree can travel near the surface of the ground for up to 300’ (the length of a football field) seeking out that water.
What tree might this be? The giant sequoia. Since this tree is capable of growing to a height of 300’, it seems like a root system that runs only to the depth of two average height men and only a third as wide as its height would not support the most massive living thing on earth by volume. But a Creator God knew what He was doing when He made the amazing sequoia.
Returning to the universal truth to be extracted from the mythical bamboo tree, it is imperative to do deep and painful work in your heart (underground, beneath the surface) if you’re going to produce character growth that will manifest externally in your lives. Tragically, many people spend little to no time developing the roots of their character but focus instead on shallow external things like physical exercise, clothing, cosmetics, shoes, plastic surgery, and possibly even what kind of physical mien to manifest when in public.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine, of course, to take care of God’s temple. Please exercise, do find clothes that you enjoy, do spend a bit of time making yourself look handsome and beautiful.
My point here is that if these shallower things are your primary pursuit—if they are your focus to the exclusion of internal growth or to the minimization of it—you’re not going to be a massive sequoia tree but a blade of grass. Like bamboo, you’ll grow quickly to an impressive height, but then stop after 60 days. A lot of bamboo is outwardly strong but quite hollow on the inside.
Let’s revisit a familiar theme at Designer Therapy for Life, viz., that of practicing the presence of God. If we practice His presence (if we hunger and thirst for Him and seek Him more than anything else on the planet), we will become like Him—strong in character and deep in love. There are no shortcuts. Our hearts grow where we invest our time and desires.
Look at what God’s word says about being with God . . .
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus ~ Acts 4:13.
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you ~ Matthew 6:32-33.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith ~ Hebrews 12:1-2a.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint ~ Isaiah 40:29-31
Throughout the Bible, we encounter the theme of hungering, thirsting, seeking, and fixing our eyes on God’s presence. When we pursue Jesus with all our hearts, we grow to be strong trees unmoved by the storms of life, not saplings that can be uprooted or broken by smaller gales. We grow strong in the characteristics of Christ as seen in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control . . .
My favorite passage about trees in the Bible related to personal growth is found in Jeremiah 17:-8 (see also Psalm 1): Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that send out it roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit ~ Jeremiah 17:5-8
Do you want to be a shrub in the desert or a tree that bears much fruit? I encourage you to pursue Jesus with zeal and be like the tree that sends its roots out to the stream even if they must travel long distances to get there. As you draw strength from dwelling next to the living water, you will become a mighty tree that others will run to for shelter from the storm, a refuge from the burning sun, and a hiding place from the threats and attacks of evil.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified ~ Isaiah 61:1-3
There is no need to settle for metaphors about mythical Chinese bamboo trees. As believers in Jesus, we do not search out myths but send our roots into something or Someone real instead. We seek the One who penetrated history from the outside bringing redeeming love, reconciling sacrifice, and eternal life.
Remember the tree that bore Jesus up while He saved the world. That tree was no more mythical than the One nailed to it. That tree carried the Truth of the universe who would die on its wooden skin but be raised so that we might eat from the tree of life in heaven one day.
I guess life is all about trees. Ha.
Be a tree that drinks from the stream of life, no matter how far and how long your roots must travel to get there.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life ~ John 4:14
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified ~ John 7:37-39