It is the nature of all living things to reproduce themselves, to produce the next generation of their kind. But when trees in dense forests try to do so, they often encounter a serious problem: There is no place for their offspring to grow. Even though there may be room enough and to spare on the ground beneath the stand of trees, the leafy forest canopy overhead blocks out the essential sunlight. The result is that seedlings cannot get a real foothold on life.
The parent trees attack this problem in various ways. Some produce “winged” seeds, which can be carried moderate distances by wind currents. Others depend upon birds or squirrels or other small seed-nibblers to carry away and hide more seeds than they will eat. Still others equip their seeds to lie dormant for many years on the forest floor until the right conditions for sprouting occur.
But perhaps the strangest provision for the next generation of trees is that made by some species of pine. These trees hold their children close in the womb until a forest fire clears a space for them.
While the cones of most conifers open when they are ripe to allow the seeds to fall, the cones of these pines remain tightly closed – often for so many years that the yearly growth of bark grows up around them, holding them in fast embrace.
Only one thing will cause the cones to spread their scales and release the seeds within: extreme heat. Frequently it is only the heat generated by the incineration of the parent tree which opens the womb. These pines give birth only in the throes of death! Only thus can they insure living space for their progeny. And thus also is provision made to heal the fire’s wound, and re-clothe the hills with new growth.
Beyond all doubt this is a marvelous provision, but we are impelled to ask how it could come about. Could it have “just happened?” Is it the end result of an evolutionary chain of adaptations, as many would claim?
The unproven Theory of Evolution would have us believe that little by little, as eons passed by, these pine tree species moved further and further from the normal summer-time dropping of seeds, toward their present policy of never dropping them until calamity strikes. Could intermediate methods have worked? They could not! The first changes toward requiring ever greater heat for seed release would have meant that any little fire, or lightning bolt, or even a hot sunny day, would have triggered the dispersal, without providing the necessary break in the forest canopy overhead.
No, once again we see that there is really no place for trail-and-error development, nor for gradual development. But both of these concepts are required by the evolutionary theory. To function at all, the finished system had to be in place and operational.
And this points to One who foresees the end from the beginning. It points to the Master Planner, who lovingly fashioned each individual element of nature, and gave to each species the unique properties which would sustain that species, and at the same time create a harmonious whole. We are looking at the handiwork of God.
God lavished as much loving attention to detail on creating the least atom and lowliest worm as He did when He populated the boundless starry heavens. He watches over every blade of grass, as well as the oxen that eat the grass, and the men who drive the oxen. And, lest we think too highly of ourselves, His Word reminds us that: “As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.” (Psalm 103:15-16)
We are not here forever, nor are we here without a purpose. Purpose is inherent in the design of every leaf, every rock and rill, every creature – and not least, every human being. The Bible tells us the purpose of creation in Revelation 4:11: “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created!” [Or, “…for your pleasure they are and were created.”]
We were created to give God pleasure: The pleasure, the joy that a father feels when his children return his love.
When we see all around us death and disease, destruction and slaughter, and a world slowly being poisoned by its own excesses, this is not the result of God’s design, but of man’s rebellion against the peace and purposes of God. The Bible foretells a time, yet future, when God will step dramatically into history again to bind up nature’s wounds and bring peace again upon earth. At that time, no man’s hand will be against his neighbor, and all will serve the Son of God, who will rule in righteousness.
But we do not have to await that time to make our peace with God. He gives heart-peace and joy, even in the midst of perils and persecution, to all who call in true faith upon the name of his Son, Jesus the Christ of God.
(Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)