Planters of Trees

When God made Eden, it was described as a place of trees. It was among those trees that Adam and Eve fulfilled their tasks of dressing and keeping the garden. Here they trained vines and gazed appreciatively upon abundant blooms, and the fruits of the garden were their food.

"This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created . . . before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; . . . The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food . . ." (Genesis 2:4-9).

To this garden God came to be with man in the cool of the day, and here, under trees, Adam and Eve worshiped their Maker. Picture man, surrounded by animal pets, sitting with the King of the Universe as He shares the plans He has for them. They offered praise and gratitude, and nothing but goodwill filled their hearts and overflowed in song and sincere adoration.

"The groves were God’s first temples . . .," wrote famed poet William Cullen Bryant in "A Forest Hymn" during the early 1800’s; "In the darkling wood amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down and offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks and supplication."

Mankind, animals, and plants formed an interdependent and harmonious system. The Creator designed it this way to teach important spiritual lessons of selflessness. Nature nurtured a deep sense of peace and security among its earliest inhabitants. It still can, but often we deprive ourselves of opportunities to worship our Maker surrounded by His works. Worship, after all, is more than what we do, it is a state of being or an attitude rooted in faith. Nature provides the setting in which this attitude of adoration and faith in the God of Creation can flourish.

I well remember worshiping in the open air together with a group of students in the magnificent canyon of the Rio Pilon in the Sierra Madre Oriental of northeastern Mexico. Lovely trees grew along its banks. The experience reminded me of the Scripture: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper" (Psalm 1:1-3).

On another occasion we worshiped in a pine grove on the flanks of Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Dominican Republic. The Spirit of God came very close to us there.

Unfortunately, our urbane society frequently turns from living temples in woodland glades to man-made structures heralding artisans and architects that merely copy and refashion works of the Master Architect. These structures typically shut us away from the works of the Creator and its profound lessons of joy, peace, and security. Sadly, we are often unaware of our loss.

Aside from giving beauty and peace in the garden, the Creator told man to be fruitful, multiply, fill earth, and subdue it (see Genesis 1:28). Subdue it? Did the newly created earth really need subduing? And man was not the only one told to fill the earth. Other creatures were likewise instructed (see Genesis 1:22), so how could filling the earth mean subduing it? And why was only man told to subdue the earth while other creatures were told to merely be fruitful and multiply?

Outside Eden, the earth was apparently still relatively undeveloped and empty. Evidently, filling and subduing meant softening earth with vegetation and animals, just as God had done when He made Eden. God allowed man the privilege of cooperating in this marvelous process. Working together creatively would be an expression of God’s image. Man was given access to what God had made as a resource to enlarge the garden in all kinds of imaginative ways-to be a landscape gardener.

While animals were also told to multiply, enlarging the garden was man’s special responsibility, and to carry out this privilege, he was given dominion over nature. Dominion, however, was not a rank or even a right; it was a responsive relationship with nature ordained by the Creator.

As long as man kept an unblemished relationship with his Creator, he also had similar responses from animals. Lions, for example, could be led by children as pictured by Isaiah in the new Earth (see Isaiah 11:6). This dominion was lost through sin, however. The loss was complete when God noted, after the flood, that He would put fear of man in animals as told in Genesis 9:2. And now as we attempt to get harmony back by force, nature suffers.

Although we look for complete restoration in the new Earth, Scripture is clear that land, even under the curse of sin, will be more productive when we return to a correct relationship with God. Certainly this was the promise to Israel and proved to be their experience when followed faithfully. Sadly, they also experienced loss when they failed to trust and follow Him. Nature, when we do trust in God, even now provides opportunities for interaction and blessings closer to that which God originally intended. As we learn more about our Maker through what He has made, we will approach His work more closely and become involved with His Creation. As we restore nature, so will we be restored.

We must never forget that there is still an enemy in the land-an evil force is at work. Only when the Creator finally eliminates rebellion will we realize the full renewal of Creation, but even now we can approach Eden.

The Eden experience suggests getting closer to our Maker through what He has made. We can do this by worshipping in wild places, of course, but that is only part of what it means to experience Eden. Man was also to experience Creation in a much more active way; he was to dress and keep the garden. Although much has been lost through degenerative sin, we may still learn from working in a garden.

The word garden implies many things. Perhaps we can combine some of the facets of a garden in order to achieve an even closer return to the Eden experience. For some, a garden is a place to grow vegetables. Others associate gardens with beautiful flowers. Still others visualize a park of beautiful trees and shrubs. A garden may include all of these, but the important part is to work with the garden in dressing it, keeping it, and worshiping the Creator of it.

For about seven years I have been involved with the Joshua C. Turner Arboretum in Lincoln, Nebraska. This arboretum is a garden of trees and shrubs on the Christian campus of Union College. The campus has provided a wonderful way of reaching back to the Eden experience. Moreover, it is one of about 50 such sites that make up the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. This grand display of trees is part of a larger tradition of planting trees in Nebraska. In fact, Arbor Day had its beginning here.

Eleven of the Nebraska arboreta are college or university campuses such as Nebraska Wesleyan University and Concordia College. Each of these samples of Eden daily influences the environmental and spiritual education of tomorrow’s leaders. What will they learn from this experience?

When pioneers first journeyed across the vast central plains of America, trees were found only along waterways and around ponds. The prairie has its own peculiar beauty, but to the newcomers it was too different. They felt exposed and threatened with no place as a natural refuge, and so they began planting trees-partly to meet practical needs but perhaps also partly in response to a longing for the Eden of Creation. Here is how the tradition of tree planting began.

Trees not only buffet the wind, provide building materials, and offer shade, they also cool, remove carbon dioxide and pollution, and give off oxygen-important in combating global warming. God’s Creation, when given the opportunity, is restorative by design.

Trees also provide nesting sites, food, and shelter for many birds and animals. Trees often appeal to our sense of beauty and give us a sense of peace and hope- "They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands" (Isaiah 65:22). No wonder the pioneers were motivated to plant trees.

A visitor to the area once wrote of her experience while traveling through Lincoln, Nebraska. Coming from Vermont, she confessed she had never paid much attention to trees. So often, we fail to appreciate what we have. In Lincoln, however, this particular woman saw something she had not noticed before. She looked carefully at trees and saw them as she had never seen trees while living amid forestlands. She observed different forms, sizes, leaf and bark textures, and varied colors. The papery, coffee-and-cream bark of the river birch especially caught her attention. She eventually returned to Vermont and planted nothing but trees in an abandoned hay field.

The arboreta in Nebraska have a variety of academic uses as living laboratories and museums. Botany and ecology students use them to study tree species; English classes meet under the boughs when the weather is warm; art students frequently draw or paint in the open air amid inspiring scenes of nature; and sometimes music students even practice under the lofty limbs.

While nature inspires scientists, writers, and artists, the garden setting inspires praise. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me . . . to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified" (Isaiah 61:1-3).

With a certain cost involved in maintaining such a lush habitat, budget constraints may cause some to think of an arboretum as a luxury beyond the means of a small college. In an essay on campus beautification and its effect on learning and spiritual enrichment, Professor of Education Larry Boughman quoted Mavis Batey from her work, "The Historic Gardens of Oxford and Cambridge" which revealed that the universitys’ gardens were the very inspiration needed for developing intellect. She thought Oxford’s gardens an extension of the philosophy of simplicity and excellence so necessary for both students and professors to flourish in their intellectual endeavors. In fact, she regarded the gardens as more essential than good professors which certainly emphasizes the value of gardens and trees in the development of mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Certainly, these qualities-simplicity and excellence-are noble goals of Christian education and a by-product of garden-like surroundings within campus and urban life that can be treasured, for they harken back to an Eden-like bliss when our Maker was worshipped face to face and forward to a glimpse of what may be present in the Earth made new as revealed in 2 Peter 3:13.

In fact, when possible, we should make our surroundings even more beautiful, for therein are important lessons-humility, patience, and dependence upon the Creator as He takes our feeble labors and adds the miracle of life. In the garden, we plant and prune and cultivate, but only the Creator can provide the design and elements that make it all work to His glory. Thus, we grow in humility-to depend upon the goodness of the One who both creates and sustains life in the soothing and restorative realm of nature.

When associated with the Creator, nature teaches rest that goes far beyond physical and even mental rest. This deeper rest is that which comes from a powerful assurance in a caring Creator who is exemplified in nature. The surety of His design and handiwork provides a lasting peace as nothing else can. Jesus had this kind of assurance in mind when He said in Luke 12:27, "Consider the lilies how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say unto you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

By design the Creator placed mankind in a garden where His work of art is never completed. Of all arts, none takes so long to mature or is so liable to destruction as a garden. There is a constant need to monitor the health of trees and plants and to repair wind and insect damage-an arduous task that continually reminds us of the curse under which we live. But renewed growth each spring also reminds of the soon coming complete restoration of man and the Creator’s garden.

Henry Zuill, Ph.D., writes from Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he is a professor of biology. Many of his off hours are spent in the garden enjoying the blessings God has created.