St Mary's Church, Hertingfordbury

Whether you go by the creation story in the Bible or by scientific estimates, trees have been around on the Earth longer than humans.
 

The Bible is peppered with significant trees. It tells us that many of the trees in the Garden of Eden provided sustenance for the first humans – except for one, which came with a stern warning not to eat its fruit. The Biblical edict thus tallies with the botanical reality that not all tree fruits are good for you.
 

Jesus grew up as the son of a carpenter, turning trees into worked wooden objects. He was put to death on a timber cross, which especially in archaic language was often just called “the tree”. And Revelation, the final book of the Bible, returns to the idea from Genesis of a Tree of Life.

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There is a long tradition of singling out particular trees as special. The reaction to the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree is a case in point. Trees are living beings; sap and bark are their skin and blood. And with their longevity and ability to recover even from seemingly fatal harm, it is not surprising they have become associated with certain enduring values that are at the heart of Christianity: hope, steadfastness, resurrection, eternity.