Bring to mind, please, a tree which you have admired: a tall tree – a monarch of the forest, perhaps. There it stands, a magnificent specimen, towering against the sky.
Now, if you please, imagine that you must climb that tree to the very top, with a 60-pound pack on your back. As soon as you reach the top, you must leave your burden and descend, only to start up all over again with a fresh load. Furthermore, you must climb this tree 12 times during the day. And you must make a similar number of trips up the tree every day in the future.
That assignment would quickly wear down the strongest man, wouldn’t it? Fortunately, no one is likely to give any of us such an order. But our imaginary task is no more than the actual task which the tree itself must perform every day, if it is to live and thrive.
The weight which every tree must lift is water, and it can amount to quite a lot. A large birch tree, for instance, requires about 90 gallons of water per day in the growing season. That means lifting 720 pounds up to 100 feet or more – or, in the case of the really tall tress, up to 300 feet or more.
We would grunt and groan a good deal if we had to carry such a load, but trees manage the task very efficiently and quietly. How do they do it? Scientists have pondered that question for many years, but they really don’t know the answer.
Four possible solutions have been investigated. First, the water might be pushed up from below, either by “root pressure” or by capillarity (which is the tendency of water to rise in very thin tubes, or capillaries). But neither root pressure nor capillarity can provide anywhere near enough force to push a water column to the top of tall trees.
The second possibility would be that the leaves at the top of the tree suck up the water from the roots. But such suction pressure is limited by atmospheric pressure, and can only lift a column of water about 33 feet.
A third possibility might be that trees raise the water by stages, with cells acting as miniature pumping stations. But this was found to be just an empty idea when an experimenter introduced picric acid into the water vessels in tress. This poisonous substance, which would have killed the cells as it rose, thus shutting down their supposed pumping capacity, did not stop the continued ascent of the tainted water.
Scientists studying the problem know of only one other possible mechanism, and that is the force with which water molecules cling to each other. This force, called “cohesion,” has been measured, and was found to be more than adequate to lift water to the top of the tallest tree. In this theory, as water is evacuated from leaves into the surrounding air, it exerts a cohesive tug on the column of water stretching down the twig and branch to the trunk and thence to the root. It is the best answer science has been able to come up with.
But this solution also has grave problems. For one thing, it depends upon the water column being continuous from leaf to root. But experiments have not verified that this is the case, for very often gaps have been found in the water columns.
Another very serious objection came to light when it was found that if a tree trunk is sawed more than half-way through, and then sawed again, a foot or so above or below this cut, but from the other side, the tree continues to live though it ought to die. Theoretically, all its water vessels have been severed, but the tree may not even wilt. (“Plants and Water”, J. Sutcliffe, Edward Arnold Ltd., London, 1968, p. 75.) The tree will, of course, have to be braced for much of its support has been destroyed.
It all comes down to this: After a century of study by some of the finest minds in the scientific community, no one really knows how a tree waters its leaves. The tree applies principles which continue to defy man’s understanding. Yet trees have no mind at all with which to organize their components. Can it be that non-intelligence can create such living wonders as we see trees to be? Impossible! The trees have not created themselves! They were obviously designed by a very great intelligence. We call that intelligence God.
Wisdom is one of God’s chief characteristics. As the Bible says: “By wisdom Yahweh [that is, God] founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.” (Proverbs 3:19)
But God is much more than Intelligence. “God is light” (1 John 1:5), the Bible says, and this speaks of his holiness. God is also a “consuming fire” (Hebrew 12:29), and this refers to His role as Judge over all the earth. Finally, and best of all, the Bible says “God is love” (1 John 4:8). In God’s love, mercy is added to judgment, and salvation is offered to the world, through His Son, Christ Jesus.
It is true that only God could make a tree. It is equally true that only God can give us hope and peace and forgiveness.
(Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)