PLANTED

On the rural road where I live, two different houses have been sold in the past few years. Both new owners, at different times, decided to thin out some of the trees on their lots and since I drive past their properties every day, I observed the process from beginning to end for each. 

Since we’re out in the country a little, both their yards had many mature trees intertwined with younger trees on it; not a suburban setting if you can picture it. Both homeowners used a professional to survey and carefully choose which trees were to be removed and which to stay. Their signs were posted on site to advertise their service. I drove by as men with yellow hats and clipboards stared up at the evergreens and their leaf-bearing neighbors, making their picks of life and death. Blue bands began to encircle some and I watched as they waited for their expiration. The days finally came when I passed by to see that the targeted trees had been cut down while the other trees remained, seemingly unscathed, in now spacious, tree-dotted lots. One of the owners even installed an intricate drainage system on their land with sprinklers to water the new grass and trees that were left. 

And so, after a few months of much activity at the first home and later that year with the second, both new homeowners possessed the lot of their dreams and my drive back and forth on our road became, yet again, uneventful. 

As I said in the beginning, this all happened a few years ago and since I still live here, I continue to pass by these homes on a daily basis. A sad and I’m sure unexpected end has come. Gradually, over time, all the trees on their lots have died. The young and old trees together, the ones that were chosen to live, presently all stand dead without any green upon them. If you were to drive by today you would see that where there used to be a vibrant silva around these homes, there remains now a plot of only grass and dead trees. 

For some reason, trees have always been a metaphor for deeper lessons to me. Maybe because Genesis starts in a garden. Maybe because there are a lot of verses about trees in the Bible. Isaiah 61:3 says that we are “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord” so I guess I tend to see trees as a picture of people and try to learn something from them. The lesson I learned from my neighbor’s trees is that we need connection. 

Harvard University Dendrologists* have discovered that trees that live together help each other by sending resources through their roots. An experiment was conducted where some trees in a forest were covered by shaded cloth, to block their ability to acquire nutrients through photosynthesis. Without getting too technical, the trees around them were injected with carbon (a necessary ingredient for food-making) which was tagged with a tracer. Sure enough those tagged carbon molecules were found as sugar in the trunks of the shaded trees. In other words, those shaded trees must have received their food from the others! The study’s many experiments confirmed that trees are indeed communicating with each other and sharing nutrients through their roots, forming a complex system sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web.” Literally Uber Eats through the wood wide web! 

Trees growing together communicated between species and shared their nutrients preferentially between their kin. But healthy trees could also cross-talk between different species as well and interspecies tree communication was shown to increase the fitness and resiliency of all the trees. These root networks are extremely important for their health during times of danger. They actually send chemical signals to warn the neighboring trees about invasive predators for example. The surrounding trees can then defend themselves by releasing volatile hormones or chemicals to deter predators or pathogenic bugs. 

The trees in my neighbor’s yards needed each other. They were connected in unseen ways, literally dependent on the trees around them. When trees around them were lost, they lost their connection. The scientists even discovered that trees can send a stress signal to nearby trees after a major forest disturbance, such as deforestation. Not to be too dramatic but hearing that now makes me a little sad for those trees that were left behind. Were they crying out to each other in their isolation to no avail? 

I am a science teacher but not a tree-hugger by any means so don’t worry about me please. The example here may be trees but my lesson is actually about people, and in that regard, I am passionate. Why? Because my Savior is passionate. God, our creator made us each uniquely and loves us all so personally but remember when he said we are not meant to be alone? Listen to it in tree talk:

“I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together, that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:19-20).

And if we are not meant to be alone, we must stay connected. When we are unified, we are strong, our differences able to make us more resilient in our solidarity. When some of us are hungry, others can do the feeding. When there is danger, we can stand together and defend each other. When it is hard, we can send out a stress signal: Send help! I’m hurting!

There is a vulnerability to connection, I know. All my neighbor’s trees died because they were connected and dependent. So maybe you’re thinking it’s better to just be alone and not risk the hurt. The Harvard study also found that trees living in forests tended to live longer than trees living in isolation. Aloneness is not the answer. The solution is in that verse in Isaiah that says, “I will plant…the hand of the Lord has done this and…created it.” The gardener is God and He chooses your literal lot in life. Trust Him. Where He plants you, you are meant to be. He is good. What He has for you there is good.

No offense to my neighbors but obviously they weren’t supposed to remove those trees. It’s a good reminder that we are not our own and we do not get to make those kinds of decisions for ourselves. I’m sure they had their reasons and they thought they were good. I’m sure people leave their church community for reasons that they think are good. But if we are planted by God’s hand then we must submit to His plan and ‘planting’ for our lives.  

I know that I have a purpose and I’ve been growing in my ‘woodland’ world for a long time. My roots go deep into Jesus and wide to the others around me. I am vitally connected. Over the years I’ve had trees in my forest pull up their roots and walk away and it hurts. It always hurts. When it happens, I put out a signal to the others around me and we help each other. And one more thing I do. I dig my roots down even deeper and out even wider into where God has planted me. I’m not going anywhere. I will not die nor bring death into my forest. I will not uproot myself nor be greatly moved. I will connect.

I am a mighty oak, dropping my acorns and growing strong, the planting of my Lord, that He may be glorified. 

*Information about trees found on the Harvard University Blog: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/exploring-the-underground-network-of-trees-the-nervous-system-of-the-forest/