There was one helper who was so excited that she could hardly wait for her turn to tell of her adventures! She had been to Sequoia National Park and had seen giant Sequoia trees! These trees are amazing, they are the not the tallest trees in the world, but they are the biggest when the base of the tree is measured and when the amount of wood in the tree is calculated!
These trees are so big that a road can be carved through the tree, and the trees can live for over 3,000 years!
The bark on most trees is hard and either gray or black; the bark on a sequoia tree is reddish brown and if you touch it, it feels spongy. The bark on a sequoia tree can be up to 18 inches thick and protects the tree from forest fires, many sequoia trees have black scars on the bark from forest fires over the years.
The sequoia trees need forest fires to produce baby trees. The seed cones can hang on the tree for up to 20 years and will only open and scatter their seeds after a forest fire. Also, the seeds will not start to grow unless they fall on the right kind of ground. The ground must be bare and clear of other plants and trees (the fire burned up the other plants and trees), the soil must have a high content of minerals, and be moist but not muddy. The sequoia trees only become giants when they are in the right location; they only grow big on the western side of the Sierra Nevada mountains between 4, 000 and 8,000 feet of elevation.
If the soil conditions are not exactly right and if the location and elevation are not right, then the sequoia tree will not become a giant tree!
Application for you and me:
The helper was so excited because of the God-Connection that she had discovered as she learned about the giant sequoia trees! The life of a Christian is a lot like the life of a tree, both start out small and are expected to grow! Too many people think that they will just ask Jesus to forgive them and then not do anything else, but they are missing the whole point. Following Jesus is a lifelong adventure! When a person asks Jesus to forgive them and come into their life, it is like the small seed of a sequoia tree that begins to grow in the ground. The small seedling is supposed to grow and mature over the years, and the same is true for followers of Jesus. A Christian’s growth is shown by a change from inside of them, they will gradually become more like Jesus and more focused on living for Jesus and pleasing Him!
The helper had learned that the sequoia seedling will only grow into a giant tree when it is growing the right kind of soil, and in the right environment. The soil must be cleared by fire, be moist but not muddy, and have a high mineral content.
In Mark 4:3-8 Jesus told a parable about the right kind of ‘soil’ that helps a Christian to grow:
Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!
Of course, the people who heard Jesus say this parable were kind of confused about it, so Jesus explained what the parable meant in verses 14-20:
The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!
To grow and mature as a believer, each person needs to ask God to help them grow; they need to commit themselves to walking with God the rest of their life, through the easy times and the hard times. It is so important to spend time learning God’s Word (the Bible) and reading it and even memorizing verses. God needs to always be the most important part of their life, so that the things of this world do not lead them astray. They need to remain humble and realize that they cannot do all this by themselves, they need to ask God to help them become the good soil so that they grow and mature in their Christian life!
Besides good soil, a sequoia tree needs the right environment for it to grow into a giant tree. If it is not on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains between 4,000 and 8,000 feet in elevation it will not grow into a giant tree. A follower of Jesus also needs to be in the right environment to grow to his or her potential. Jesus wants all Christians to be involved in a good Church (one that teaches the truth from the Bible).
In the Bible in Hebrews 10:25 it says:
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.
Some Christians says that they do not need to go to Church, they say that they can worship God just as well while they are playing golf or out in their boat. It is true that we can worship God in many places besides Church, but God knows that we need each other so that we can grow the way that He wants us to.
So, to grow as a Christian the way God wants us to, we must ask God to help us have the ‘good soil’ in our life, and we must be involved in a good Church that teaches the truth from the Bible.