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High on a Sierra Nevada mountainside in eastern California stands the largest tree in the world.
The numbers associated with this sequoia, which was named for Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, are hard to fathom.
It’s as high as a 28-story building. At its base, its trunk is 36.5 feet wide.
Scientists estimate that the General Sherman is around 2700 years old. That means it was alive when Isaiah the prophet was preaching in Israel, calling God’s people to “prepare the way for the Lord”- the arrival of Jesus centuries later.
The General Sherman isn’t the tallest tree in the world. That distinction belongs to Hyperion, a redwood farther north in California. Nor does it have the widest base – a physical feature dominated by certain cypress and baobab trees. Nor is it the oldest known tree. Botanists estimate that Prometheus, a bristle cone pine in Nevada, had lived at least 4,862 years before it was cut down in 1964.
But by virtue of its astonishing bulk, the Sherman can rightfully claim to be the world’s largest single tree.
Along with a few thousand other gigantic sequoias that are found only in that part of the world, it’s also a national treasure that has to be protected.
That’s why there’s a fence around the General Sherman. Visitors can pose for pictures in front of it, but aren’t allowed to touch its rust-colored bark. Four years ago, when a fire was raging in Sequoia National Park, rangers gently wrapped its base in a special protective aluminum foil.
When you’re huge, immobile, and qualify for the botanical equivalents of Medicare and Social Security, it’s nice to have an assisted living staff at your beck and call.
No such emergency care is extended to another species of tree. That’s because sugar maples are doing just fine, thank you.
These medium-size deciduous trees are famous for their spectacularly colored fall leaves, their sturdy hardwood (perfect for flooring and furniture), and the sap that flavors the syrup atop your pancakes.
Sugar maples will never grow like sequoias – that is, colossally self-absorbed with their own magnificence.
They are much more successful than that.
The U.S. Forest Service estimates there are 739 million of them in the eastern half of the United States, from Maine to Minnesota. Why are they so widespread? It’s because maple trees don’t grow by getting fatter.
They grow by producing more maple trees.
And what’s the best part? We can get up close and personal with a whole stand of sugar maples any time we want.
God’s call is not that we become “fatter” by reading more books and absorbing more spiritual insights, conveniently overlooking the fact that such treasures genuinely become ours only if we choose to put them into practice as part of an actual spiritual life.
Instead, God yearns for us to be lavishly fruitful in a more outward-focused way, one relationship at a time:
So, do something nice for a difficult neighbor.
Write a note of encouragement to someone who keeps crossing your mind.
Choose to volunteer at a church ministry.
Instead of just saying “goodbye,” finish a conversation by telling someone you love them.
Every such act is like planting a seed. Something new – someone new – suddenly has the potential to grow.
And just like maple trees, they gradually achieve the capacity to pour life into multitudes of others.
So, visit the General Sherman if you possibly can. Take a few pictures and don’t forget to keep a respectful distance.
Then throw your arms around the nearest sugar maple and say, “When I grow up, I want to be just like you.”