Spiritual Lessons from Biology

            Not long ago there was a terrible storm in England.   Ancient living towers lay strewn about the ground.   How can something light as air fell in a moment the mighty tree?! The roots of the trees in England are often small because water is always right at the surface (if you have lived in England you know what I am talking about… the water is never far away since it’s constantly falling out of the sky!)   The roots of those stately oaks had never grown deep in search of nutrients; and thus the root system was quite limited.   A tree that experiences drought or times of great stress will send its roots down further, and thus it will survive a storm. Not so the Peelu tree, scientific name Salvadora persica. This tree has drawn the attention of environmentalists around the globe. It's a persistent organism and stands well against windstorms and even tsunamis. Some environmentalists are hoping to have ...

I went on a hike recently.  It is springtime, and the hummingbirds are appearing in the mountains around my house.  I love to stand and watch their mating rituals.  It is a fascinating show: they climb high into the sky, their tiny motors humming, and then zoom straight towards the ground in a death-dive.  At the last moment they change directions and fly upwards again.  It thrills my heart every time I see it! Biologists used to think that the hummingbirds emitted one loud chirp just as they were turning around from their death dive.   It puzzled them how this animal could vocalize so loudly in the middle of this complex maneuver.   Just ask any pop star—many do not actually sing while they are dancing, rather, they mouth to a recording of their voice!   Strenuous physical maneuvers do not allow for much vocalization. Later it was discovered that the ‘chirp’ at the turn-around of the hummingbird’s dance was not a vocalization at all. ...

I love Colorado forests.  There is something about the way the wind moves through the pine trees.  Unlike deciduous trees, pine trees do not lose leaves in autumn.  Instead, these trees have various forms of pine needles.  This allows them to photosynthesize all year without having to go dormant when the snows come.  They don't lose nutrients due to leaf loss, and they provide shelter for the ground below. Yesterday I went for a long hike.  As I was praying, I asked God to give me an evergreen spirit.   Perhaps, like me, you have had a ‘desert season’ in your life; a time when your prayer life seemed to dry up and you could not find the presence of God.   How do we cultivate an evergreen spirit—a spirit that thrives under the hand of our Lord no matter our circumstances? I believe a spirit that trusts in the Lord is one that DOES go through droughts, but is affected by droughts differently. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD ...