LightGrams
January 16, 2025
Volume 29, Number 3
Some residents of Ghent, Belgium are like many others around the world; they are more conscious of environmental stewardship and try to recycle whatever products they don’t consume. The city’s website recently posted another way to recycle: Take the needles from your discarded Christmas tree, soak and dry them to make spruce needle butter. It’s a Scandinavian tradition, the site claimed.
The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain of Belgium soon put up a post of their own: Do not eat your Christmas trees, it warned. They explained that some Christmas tree farms use pesticides and other chemicals. Especially worrisome, they advised, is that some tree farmers use flame retardants, and these can even prove fatal if consumed. Christmas trees “are not meant to end up in the food chain,” the FASFC concluded.
The city of Ghent modified their recycling tip. Instead of telling readers to disregard what they had earlier posted, they simply wrote, “Not all Christmas trees are edible.”
The first food safety warning took place at the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden. God created this garden as a home for Adam and Eve, but what would they eat? “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food” (Genesis 1:29). Note that God didn’t specify which parts of the trees were for food, but people normally consume fruits, seeds, and nuts, not leaves and needles.
God gave Adam and Eve this one exception in Genesis 2:16,17: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” You likely know the sad account of Genesis 3; the serpent (Satan) convinced Eve to disregard God’s warning, and after eating what God had forbidden the clock began ticking as death entered the world. God spoke the truth.
A foundational truth of the Bible was stated by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:24: “And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.” “For our good always” gave the reason why Israel should obey commands that they might not understand or even like. Doing what God commands leads to life, and disregarding His will is the pathway to death.
That reason is still in effect as we consider whether to heed God’s word or not. Jesus stated it this way in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” By following Jesus, we can know we are in “the way” and will have “the truth” and “the life”. Any other path is not safe and will surely end in death.
It may not be wise to eat trees, but it’s always wise to look to the One who gave His life for us on the tree (see 1 Peter 2:24).
Come to the light God offers! Study His word, the Bible. Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.
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Copyright, 2024, Timothy D. Hall. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New King James Version (Copyright, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc.).
“LightGrams” is produced by the Central Church of Christ, 2722 Oakland Avenue, Johnson City, Tennessee, 37601, and is written by Tim Hall, minister. It is sent free of charge every Thursday to all who request it. To subscribe or to receive more information, write to “[email protected]” (our E-mail address), to the U.S. mail address above, or call (423) 282-1571.
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