Sunday 9:30//11:00 @ Franklin High School

We walked among giants.

I’m a man of 5’ 9” on a well-rested day. The men in my family are not known for learning height. I once heard a volleyball coach say, “You can’t teach height.” Funny, and true. Ability sure counts, but the force multiplier effect of stature will ultimately best the talent of many a man.

We walked among giants.

Imagine that scene in Star Wars where the Rebel forces and Ewoks are battling the stormtroopers on land-speeders. The movie set is no set at all. It’s the mighty redwood forests of the Pacific coastal mountains of North America. Trees over 1,000 years old. These massive giants lowest branches can be 100 feet up from the forest floor. Their top branches can begin their horizontal reach at over 350 feet high.

We walked among giants.

And as we did, I wondered what could topple these mighty beasts. Giants that had survived fire, shrugged off lightning, felt the bite of winter cold and blaze of summer heat. Yes, loggers had their day. Yes, dry rot from the inside out had downed a few. But the largest culprit is WIND. No hurricanes here. No tornadoes either. Just regular old wind.

You see, these giants have a shallow root base and no tap root to secure them to terra firma. The right tip of wind can cause a topple. The forest is full of them. Mossy downed logs among the ferns, across creeks and slowly returning to carbon matter in the soil.

We walked among giants.

When a tree gets rotted-out and snapped off near the base an amazing thing happens. The former base sprouts new trees in a circle. Dendrologists (people who study trees) call these phenoms “cathedral rings.”

The fun part is that the one has replicated itself into many from the same source it used to become a tree in the first place.

We walked among giants.

My dad sprouted three men though he has returned to his Maker. When the base matter is fertile the new sprouts have a great chance of a strong long life until the inevitable tip topples. I’m walking myself among good living men now. I’m also walking among giants over 4,000 years old, found in the truth of the Bible. Truth and lives that have stood the test of time and are based in relationship with their Maker. When God calls me to Himself, my three boys can experience a tight circle and say “We walked among giants.”