The Trees - written by Vicky Starling 

 

There is a tree in Knole Park. There are quite a few trees, actually, but this one is something
else. See, this tree enormous has split in half - right at the root. Half of it fell one way and half
the other. Just the base of this tree, now halved, is taller than I am. Admittedly, at 5ft 2, that’s
not saying much, but my point still stands.

After what must have been an ear-bashing crash, I think it’s fair to say that this tree should be
dead. But here’s the thing - it’s not. From its ‘corpse’, 20 or even 30 branches have grown so
strong that a single tree has become a mystical forest; the death, and yet not death, of one has
given life to many.

I have long adored trees. Where human scars are imperfections, the scars quirks and injuries of
trees are the very source of their beauty. Age and size become strength; beauty and power are
gained over time, not lost. I suppose it should come as no surprise, then, that when God first
spoke to me, it was through an avenue of trees - strong, protective and strangely familiar.

Like God, trees are both changing and unchanging. The leaves amber and fall but the roots
remain, even after death. Trees don’t need to be told when to grow and when to shed; they
know. And their every action provides the tools of survival to those around it.

In fact, trees are perhaps the greatest life-giver (second to God, of course). We all know that
they convert CO2 to oxygen, like sin to forgiveness, but they are immense ecosystems in and of
themselves.

Alive they give rise to birds, squirrels, reptiles, insects, bacteria - in the soil, on the ground in the
air. And after death they give shelter, feed fungi and make the insects even happier. Forget
plastics - trees are our wonder material.

And they give us life. Shelter, furniture, heat, food and the very air we breathe. We don’t think
about it but trees provide almost everything we humans need, and a good many things we don’t.

 

Like the cross.

And as that cross rotted away, used and abused, it continued to give life. Far from its roots, far
from its home,

It saved us.

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