Standing beside a humungous tree!

Yesterday we crossed Nevada by way of Death Valley (48Celsius at its hottest point!), and today we journeyed north to the Bay area of California taking a detour up to Kings Canyon on the way.

One of the things that Kings Canyon is famous for is the giant redwood trees, otherwise known as the Sequoias, that grow there. They are absolutely huge; some of the biggest ones would probably take about 20 tree-huggers to reach all the way round them!

Like all good tourists, we had a bit of a stroll through the forest, and came across many very impressive sequoia specimens including the 2^nd largest tree in the world standing at 240 ft high and aged approx 1700 years old. Standing at the base of this majestic and huge tree I reflected for a moment on all that the tree has lived through. What a different world it was when the tree pushed its first shoots through the soil and started to grow. And what a home it has been part of over the years, and continues to be; how many birds, insects and other bits of flora it has been home to in its years. I know all trees are home to many smaller flora and fauna, but not many are home to 1700 years worth. And all of that came from a seed that can easily fit in the palm of my hand – a bit mind-blowing really!

Even when they die the ecosystem side of things doesn’t stop. As we walked on we came across a redwood that had died and fallen sometime before the 1900’s. Like all trees, it will have had its fair share of insects, animals, birds, fungi, lichen and more living off it as it lay on the ground, but this particular tree had a diameter of more than 7ft, so when the softer inner part of the trunk had rotted away, it became home to a family of loggers in the early 1900’s.

All this thinking about a home for so much growing from such a small seed, and interconnected living led my thoughts to how we are each part of the interconnected community of God’s Kingdom being worked out here on earth. We all live interconnected lives, alongside and intertwined with so many other lives – in our local communities, through family and friends, through work and school, and increasingly across national boundaries as we travel for work and pleasure.

Just through the last few weeks I’ve found myself involved with aspects of God’s Kingdom being worked out in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, India, USA, UK, Thai / Burma border, Malaysia, Philippines, Uganda; and that doesn’t include the people I was on a course with, or the friends from church who are out in other countries on summer missions; or the e-mail updates I’ve received from other friends who work overseas on long term development projects. I’m not trying to show off about my global connections, that just demonstrates the nature of my work and interactions through CRED Foundation and personal friends. Equally important are the local types of Kingdom work – the drop-in centre for the homeless, the local foodbank, the youth work for kids hanging about on the streets, the lunch club for the elderly, or the holiday club for the school-age children – that so many of you are involved in.

The key thing is that we all have a part to play, a calling, a role in bringing the heart of God to those who need to know it most – the lost, the broken, the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable. And we can choose to try and go it alone, or we can choose the interconnected option, and work alongside others to really maximize the outputs. That’s the best option I’m sure, and with God on our side, who knows what can be achieved – if He can grow a 240ft tree from a small seed, then nothing should surprise us!