I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

Above is the beginning line of the 1914 poem by Joyce Kilmer about trees. Those of you following these articles about "rightly dividing the word of truth", might ask: What in the world could a poem about trees have to do with interpreting the Bible. Well the short answer is, EVERYTHING!

Last week, we mentioned placing preconceived ideas (paradigms) upon the Word of God and I want to expound on that thought a little more now. As we read the Bible, trying to uncover some profound "truth" that God has for us in His Word, it is important to know that all mysteries are solved step by step with simple insights. The simple truth of the creation story found in the first few chapters of Genesis is that: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Yet, mankind, (God's creation), gets caught up or lost if you will in details. Details that the Bible is not even trying to communicate. Questions like: Was God's first day a literal 24 hours or figurative. I remember when Mike Huckabee was in the 2008 presidential candidates’ debate and the moderator asked Huckabee (who is also a minister), that very question, and without missing a beat Huckabee replied; "I don't know, I wasn't there." It is no wonder that men have so many varied doctrines when we cannot even ask the correct question. We can't ask the correct question because we do not comprehend what is written. For further insights on not seeing the obvious, read Isaiah 44, Mark 8 and John 12 among other places. I would love to expound further, but I'm trying to stay between 500-600 words each week.

Again, the main and the plain thing of the creation story is that "God created". (Period, Period, Period). Now that we have pointed that out, we can ask the correct question.

WHY? Kid's ask the why question all the time, again and again and again. So, why did God create the heaven and earth?

Simple answer: For His honor and glory that we, His creature, may know our Creator. (See Romans 1).

It's what I like to call a Nicodemus thing:

Remember in John 3, when Jesus tells Nicodemus you must be born again and Nic replies, "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" Jesus answers with a few enigmatic statements, then Jesus clarifies with the following example: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

Not taking away from the glorious King James English, which I love, but we might say it this way: You cannot see the wind Nic, but you can sure see and hear the evidence of the wind in the TREES!

You see our God is so much greater than we are, as high as the heaven is above the earth, are God's ways above our ways. Yet God loves us so much, that He created EVERYTHING including the trees, that we might know Him, that we might reach out and touch Him. That we might see Him, the Lord Jesus in the midst of the Garden as the very "Tree of Life", from whom all blessings flow, like a river of water, proceeding from this very "Tree of Life" unto all the world. Living water spring up from this Tree of Life, offered to whosoever will to drink freely. Jesus in the middle of the Garden of Eden and in Heaven.

Genesis 2:9 KJV
[9] And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

See Revelation 22:1-2 and Revelation 22:13-14.

Below is the final line of the 1914 poem by Joyce Kilmer about trees.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.