Our first experience of the giant Sequoias was not the huge Mariposa grove with hundreds of trees, but the much smaller Tuolumne Grove with its 20 trees.  You hike down a hill about a mile and a half, and you are among truly large trees; Ponderosa and Sugar Pines and Cedars.  They are impressive trees, more than 150 feet tall and substantial at their base.  Then you come around a turn in the trail, and you see the first giant tree, and it is simply something of an entirely different order of creation than the large trees all around it.
 
The largest Pine and Cedar trees in the area are perhaps 6-7 feet in diameter at their base.  The largest Sequoias are 30 feet.  They have branches larger than the largest of the other larger trees.  The fact that there are only 20 of these giants scattered among their neighbors lends an experience of their being something quite special.  Some of them are more than 2000 years old.  They were seedlings when Jesus was alive.  The oldest may be 2700 years old, which would place their cones opening and depositing seed somewhere about the time of the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to Assyria in 722 BCE.
 
To me these trees approached a spiritual experience.  Their appearance is remarkable, with their two foot thick, fire resistant bark. They have lived and endured longer than nearly any other living thing on earth. They have had tunnels cut through them and are still alive 120 years later.  The force of life is clear and powerful in them.
 
Celtic spirituality speaks of "thin places" on the earth, places where people experience the presence of God in particular ways.  Some of these places are even seen as places where one's spirit might pass through and receive revelation.  Perhaps that is what these giant trees were to me, a thin place on this earth, and a portal of interaction with the Creator's own creative spirit.  However this kind of place works in the divine/human interaction; I am grateful for it, and my spirit was renewed.
 
Wisconsin's own John Muir, who spent much of his life living in and loving the high Sierra, called the region surrounding the giant trees "the Range of Light."  In the 20th century Ansel Adams captured the unique light of Yosemite.  Certainly the play of light is beautiful in the valley and among the peaks and in the forests that include the giant trees.  But I am confident that Muir didn't just mean the remarkable physical properties of light in the region, but another meaning of "light" as well; a light that reveals the heart of creation.
 
"Walk the Sequoia woods at any time of the year and you will say they are the most beautiful and majestic on earth.  Beautiful and impressive contrasts meet you everywhere--the colors of tree and flower, rock and sky, light and shade, strength and frailty, endurance and evanescence...."     -John Muir
 
Many blessings to you. May there be some "thin places" in your life and your days, where God's power can sustain and nourish you and reveal God's hope for you.
 
David Moyer

Conference Minister