As one drives on US highway 101 in northern California, signs keep popping up along the road announcing that you are approaching "The Trees of Mystery." Soon there appears a large statue of Paul Bunyan and a huge blue ox. A sign indicates the entrance, and as you walk along the path through the woods there are periodic signs pointing out some odd and even grotesque shapes of trees. Someone has capitalized on malformed tress and built a major tourist attraction based on the attraction of the public to the word "mystery." However, there are some real mysteries about trees. Man is only able to lift-pump water a little over 34 feet, even with the most powerful pumps. This is because atmospheric pressure is only equal to the weight of 34 feet of water a sea level. But some trees, as giant Sequoias and redwoods, lift water over 300 feet. How do they do it? Well, we have coined some fancy scientific words like "root pressure" or "osmotic pressure, or "capillary action," but when it comes right down to understanding, we really don't know how they do it. Water is somehow pumped from the roots up the trunk to the tree's leafy crown. Then the nutrients from the leaves go down through other channels to the roots. This two-way street of liquid flow occurs apparently in defiance of gravity and the laws of hydraulics.
Joyce Kilmer's poem "Trees" lauds the beauty of trees.
"I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed, Against the earth's sweet flowing breast. A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray."
Yes, trees are mysterious, they are lovely, and they are also useful; they offer shade on hot days, they yield fruit in due season, they give protection to birds and monkeys, they cool the atmosphere, they prevent erosion, and they furnish lumber for the construction of houses. We find frequent mention of trees in the Bible; two special trees which God planted in the Garden of Eden have played a significant part in the plan of salvation, the Tree of Life is mentioned as being in the New Earth, a tree was used to represent King Nebuchadnezzar, and Jesus died on a tree.
David pictures a righteous person as being compared to a tree planted by a river, a person who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, a person who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night, who brings forth fruit and whose leaves are always green (Ps. 1:1-3). That's the kind of tree we should all strive to be, law abiding and fruitful and luxuriously green as a tree "planted by the river."
