The Tree

Why a Tree?

Every December, families carry a tree into their homes and cover it with lights and ornaments. Most of us have done it for as long as we can remember. But have you ever stopped to ask: Why a tree?

It turns out the Bible has a lot to say about trees. In fact, the very first pages of the Bible and the very last pages of the Bible both centre on a tree. And the most important event in the middle of the Bible — the death of Jesus — happened on a tree. Trees are not just background scenery in God's story. They are at the heart of it.

How It All Began

At the very beginning of the Bible, God created a beautiful garden and placed the first man and woman — Adam and Eve — inside it. In the middle of that garden, God placed two special trees.

The first was called the Tree of Life. It represented the life God wanted to share with the people He had made — a life of closeness with Him that would never end. The second was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God gave Adam and Eve one simple instruction: you may eat from any tree in the garden — every single one — except this one. It was a test of trust. Would they take God at His word?

They didn't. They ate from the one tree God had told them to leave alone. And everything broke. Their closeness with God was shattered. They were sent out of the garden. An angel with a flaming sword was set to guard the way back to the Tree of Life. The door was shut. Humanity was cut off from the life God had intended for them.

This is what the Bible calls "the fall" — the moment when sin entered the world. It is the reason the world is broken. It is the reason we feel, deep down, that something is not the way it is supposed to be. And it all happened at a tree.

God Keeps Coming Back to Trees

After the fall, trees keep showing up throughout the Bible — always pointing to something important.

The book of Psalms describes a person who trusts God as being like "a tree planted by streams of water" (Psalm 1:3) — alive, fruitful, deeply rooted. It is a picture of the life God still wants for us, even after everything went wrong. The prophets — the men God sent to speak His messages to the people of Israel — call God's people "oaks of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:3), meaning people whose lives are strong, upright, and planted by God Himself.

But there is also a darker thread. In the Law — the rules God gave to Moses for the people of Israel — there is a striking statement: "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" (Deuteronomy 21:23). In that time, being hung on a tree after death was the most shameful punishment imaginable. It meant you were under God's judgement. It was a sign that you had been completely rejected.

Hold that thought. It becomes the most important thing in the story.

The Tree at the Centre of History

Hundreds of years later, Jesus of Nazareth — the Son of God — was executed by the Roman government on a wooden cross. The early Christians never forgot what that cross was made of. When the apostle Peter stood before the rulers of Israel after Jesus' resurrection, he said it bluntly: "You killed him by hanging him on a tree" (Acts 5:30).

Why did Peter use that word — tree? Because he wanted everyone to see the connection. The curse that was pronounced in the Law — "cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" — landed on Jesus. Not because Jesus deserved it. He was the only person who ever lived a perfect life. But He chose to take that curse on Himself, so that it would no longer fall on us.

The apostle Paul explained it this way: Jesus "redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). He took the punishment that our sin deserved, bearing it in His own body, on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). And because He did, the way back to God — the way that was blocked when Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden — is open again.

What was lost at one tree was won back at another.

The Tree at the End of the Story

The Bible does not end at the cross. In the very last chapter of the Bible — the book of Revelation — there is a vision of the world as God always intended it to be. A river of life flows from the throne of God. And standing beside that river is the Tree of Life.

The same tree that was guarded by an angel with a flaming sword at the beginning of the story is now open to everyone. No angel. No sword. No barrier. It bears twelve kinds of fruit — one for every month — and its leaves are described as being "for the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:2). Everything that was broken in the garden is healed. Everything that was lost is restored. The story that began with a tree ends with a tree.

Your Tree Tells This Story

The Christmas tree standing bare in your living room is not a meaningless decoration. It is an opportunity — a chance to tell your family the oldest and most important story in the world. The story of how we were made for closeness with God, how that closeness was broken, and how God Himself came to restore it — all centred on a tree.

This week, as you look at the bare tree, let it speak. It stands stripped and unadorned, with nothing to cover it or make it pretty. That is exactly how the cross stood. And that is the point. Before the lights, before the ornaments, before the gifts — there is just the tree. Just the story of what God has done.

The readings below trace this thread through the whole Bible — from the garden to the cross to the new creation. Read them together as a family. Let your children see that the tree in your home is connected to the biggest story ever told.