God Loves Trees!

Joshua 19:33 

“For Naphtali … their boundary went from Heleph and the large tree in Zaanannim, passing Adami Nekeb and Jabneel to Lakkum and ending at the Jordan (River).”

How quaint! They used an old tree as the boundary marker. This may look like primitive naïveté but I am not so sure. There is an environmental attentiveness here that we should reclaim.

If you use a tree to mark one corner of your property, and a river to define another border, you are implicitly making claims like these:

1. I believe that mighty trees and rivers will outlast mighty men and their Empires.
2. I think the old growth trees are the marker points not our possessions.
3. We need to work together and care for the tree and the river because they help to define us.
4. Trees and rivers matter. They are gifts from the Creator and we live among them and beside them. They bless us.

The Israelites expected that "large tree" to remain there for a very long time. I acknowledge that they were not modern day environmentalists. But they had a view of nature and its gifts that we can learn from.

At one time trees covered much of the earth. Today they cover less that 30% of the globe. An area of primary forest the size of Ireland is cut down every year (See GreenFacts). Given that trees are a critical element in the ecosystem that sustains life this is unacceptable. We don’t need to become “tree-huggers” or get weird about it, but we do need to respect these "givers" of clean air and beauty.

Rivers are not safe either. In 2007 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued a report on the “World’s Top 10 Rivers at Risk”. It includes the Danube, the Rio Grande, the Ganges, the Nile and the Murray-Darling. Contributing factors include: pollution, over extraction, dams, climate change and invasive species. This too is unacceptable.

Genesis 1:31 describes God surveying his finished creation and declaring it “very good!” I can’t imagine that God is happy when Adam and Eve’s grand kids (us!) rip up the trees, extinguish various animal species, poison the rivers and punch death holes in the ozone. Surely God is grieved. I wonder if he is more aligned with the naïveté of Joshua 19:33 than we may think.

It needs to be said that positive effort makes a difference. In the USA there are more trees today than 100 years ago, thanks to conservation work (Source: FAO). And concerted efforts to clean up rivers like the Songhua in China and to provide "landcare" of water catchments like the Port Phillip and Westernport region in Australia, achieve excellent results.

Some books and media reports are sensationalist. That is unhelpful. It is also true that an individual can’t go out and save a river or a forest. We feel helpless. But here are a few actions we can take:

• Get informed. Learn about endangered trees, rivers and animals.
• Repent of our environmental apathy.
• Plant some trees with friends. 
• Lobby for the parts of creation that have no voice. 
• Practice "Sabbath" (rest) in the bush. Slow down and let nature speak. Listen for God's voice here.
• Pray about environmental issues. Ask God to speed the hope of Romans 8:21.
• Use less paper and recycle wherever possible.
• Shop ethically. It is not a direct fix, but it is an important link to the big issues.
• Remind yourself and others that God loves trees (and rivers and animals …)! 

If we refuse to believe what ancient Israel knew, that mighty trees outlive might men and their Empires, we will soon discover that no trees means no men, no women, no children! Heaven help us.

Questions

• Where are you on this continuum: Couldn’t care less about trees and environmental stuff … Think trees and our planet’s health is more important than anything else? Why?
• Where do you think God is on that continuum? 
• What would you add to the list of practical things we can do?
• Please leave a comment.

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