Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”
So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there.
After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines.  Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.  And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

• Genesis 21:30-33

“‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.  Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

• Leviticus 26:3-5

I have written several times about the modern idea that removing carbon dioxide emissions will stop “Climate Change.”  I do not buy the concept.  I think the Leviticus scripture above gives the real means to solving the problem.  We have the excess carbon dioxide because we keep cutting down trees.  Abraham planted a tree to mark the signing of a treaty, and to ensure the rain in season, we must follow God’s laws or at least repent.  No, we cut down trees and ignore that God exists, flaunting our refusal to follow His laws.

Trees take the carbon dioxide, and they produce oxygen.  But no, our first idea is to cut down trees.

For twenty-five years, I have travelled, most of that time, down a back road to work.  In the nine-mile journey, for about a mile, up a big hill, the road is a tunnel through a canopy of trees.  I was taking my wife down that road one day about two weeks ago, and I had sun in my face.  How?  Someone had cut a path through the trees.  It is in a strange place for building anything, on the side of a steep slope, but they are probably going to level out a road and build something on top of the hill.

My idyllic little drive had gained a new scar.  There had been scars in other places along the road, but not in the tree tunnel.  It was just too steep to be worthy of constructing anything.

I know the routine.  If you leave organic materials, like tree roots under where you are constructing, the foundation could suffer when the organic material begins to rot.  So, for the area of the foundation, they need to be careful.  But too many people cut down far too much in an ever-expanding area around the foundation of the structure.  Then they must bring fresh topsoil back to get grass to grow.

But what I have found interesting, and saddening, in our neighborhood, as a neighbor dies, the family sells the house, and the first thing the new owners do, before they even move in, is to cut down all the trees.  Now, more carbon dioxide and less oxygen.  Less shade for the house.  The house is more vulnerable to high winds in the winter.  Sure, IF the roots were damaged, the tree could fall of the house causing a lot of damage, but the likelihood of that happening is minimal.

Our neighborhood is nearly treeless as a result, except for our neighbor two doors down, the house in the photo.  Two of the most beautiful trees in autumn that you might ever see.  The owner was 101 years old when he died last month, and I noticed people viewing the house, preparing to make an offer.

Do I need to go hug a tree?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.