CREATION SPEAKS: Hope Kindled by a Young Cypress

I want to thank Lee's Birdwatching Adventures for guest posting this blog! Lee's website is about birding from a Christian perspective and has years of articles and content from Lee and other creationists and birders. 

Creation Speaks is a Biblical teaching ministry that uses nature writing and photography to glorify our Creator and teach the truth of creation. “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" Job 12:7-9

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The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. Joel 2:3

As we look about, it can seem all is being laid waste in our society. A virus cancelling church services, political rivalries, racial unrest, lawlessness… all so troubling. But while paddling through the swamp during the coronavirus quarantine, suddenly the Holy Spirit caused hope to spring up in my heart as I watched an Anhinga perched upon a young cypress tree. God’s creation – and God’s Word – restored hope in my heart!

Pond Cypress, Taxodium ascendens, leaves and cones. Cypress is found in blackwater ponds, rivers and swamps. Native to the southeastern United States, from southeastern Virginia to southeastern Louisiana and south into Florida. Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. May 4, 2020.

​There is hope in seeing a young Okefenokee Cypress taking root and reaching toward the sky. The naturalists of old write of towering cypress, some as high as 120 feet tall , standing guard for centuries in the Okefenokee. But all that changed in the early 20th century. All were laid low.

The height, girth, straightness and quality of their wood is what no doubt brought the logging companies to the swamp seeking the cypresses. It began in 1909. The pristine Okefenokee began to bustle with activity and industry as logging skidders, sawmills and railroad tracks  invaded the Swamp.

C.T. Trowell writes, “Systematically, the Hebards extended their logging operations across the Okefenokee. Extending south from Hopkins to Cravens Island in 1912, they reached Pine Island and Mixons Hammock by 1915. Within a year they were cutting the timber between Mixons Hammock and Minnies Island and the railroad was extended across Jones Island to Billys Island. By 1918, the logging camp was established on Billys Island. About two years were required to log the timber around Billys Island. By 1921, the company was building the railroad to Floyds Island. Between 1922 and 1926, they logged the cypress around Floyds Island.” Would the Okefenokee ever recover? ​

Young Pond Cypress Tree, Taxodium ascendens, in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. Photographed in Mixons Hammock prairie swamp. Native to southeastern United States and grows in still blackwater rivers, swamps and ponds. Cypress knees and large buttress are common features. May 2, 2020.

Cypress trees grow very slowly. At a reported growth rate of only about a foot per year in their early stages, it could take 300 to 500 years for the Cypresses of the Okefenokee to once again tower over the dark waters as they did prior to 1909. But with the establishment of the Okefenokee as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1937, the healing has begun. 

Today there are already some scenic waterways through the Okefenokee - tall cypresses mirrored in the tanin-darkened waters - that hint at these former days. And with the ongoing preservation and conservation of the Okefenokee Swamp as a National Wildlife Refuge, perhaps nature enthusiasts many generations from now will be able to once again see the majestic trees that were wiped out in just a single generation.  

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice:
   for the Lord will do great things.
Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field:
    for the pastures of the wilderness do spring,
    for the tree beareth her fruit,
    the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,
    the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm,
    my great army which I sent among you.
                        ​Joel 2:3, 21-25

So if there is hope of restoration kindled in the heart upon looking at a young Cypress tree, how much more for our society upon looking at God’s Word! There is a hope that things laid bare can one day live again and be renewed to their former glory. If not in this lifetime, certainly in the next.
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As Christians, we cease not to pray for our nations, nor forget the restoration that awaits in the New Earth for those who trust and hope in Jesus Christ!

Pondcypress tree, Taxodium ascendens, leaves, cones and tassels. Mixon`s Hammock, Suwannee River canoe kayak trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia, USA. Photographed May 2020.

Young Cypress Tree Leaves