What Trees Can Teach Us About God and His Kingdom — Part TwoSample

Don’t consider yourself a dry tree

We humans tend to judge people based on their outward appearance, social class, race, gender, capabilities, and so on. Based on these judgments, we might consider ourselves superior or inferior to others. On the one hand, this can make us proud and arrogant—something God names ‘an evil thing’ (Mark 7:21-23). On the other hand, we might feel inferior if we don’t meet society’s standards. That’s the case with the foreigner and the eunuch in Isaiah 56:3 (ESV). The foreigner thinks God won’t accept him because he doesn’t belong to God’s chosen people Israel, and the eunuch thinks he is a dry tree because he is physically mutilated and can’t have children.

But God doesn’t agree with these men’s negative judgments of themselves. They are not inferior in His sight. If they join themselves to the Lord, they are just as blessed as anybody else. Instead of casting people out, God gathers the outcasts and invites them into his house. He even promises to make them joyful.

The same principle is repeated in the New Testament: “For God shows no partiality” (Romans 2:11, ESV). To God, all humans are equally valuable and equally in need of His saving grace. We are all his workmanship, created to honor and praise Him with our lives (Ephesians 2:10).  

Do you judge yourself and others based on all kinds of criteria, or do you accept God’s view of humans?