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FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW
Watchtower It wasn’t the kind of news I wanted to hear. As much as I love watching eagles, getting a phone call that one had shown up on an active logging job sent shivers up my spine! (Or maybe it was because I had a hole in my Antill waders.) Either way, on this day my forestry degree was put aside, and my wildlife management hat was put on. We were wading across a flooded swamp, looking for a tree containing a nest for the birds that had been seen the previous day. The timber buyer had flagged a trail into the swamp and marked a giant cypress tree, in the top of which sat a giant collection of sticks and branches. Both members of the construction crew sat silently in the branches of the great tree, no doubt waiting to see which of us stepped in over our waders first. Amidst the surrounding trees, the cypress stood out like a sore thumb. It was over six feet in diameter, surrounded by towering knees, sticking up out of the murky water, forming a palisade-like fence around the base of the tree. The bole of the tree had long ago lost any resemblance of beauty. Its bark was flat and slick looking. It had an assortment of bumps and bulges, testimony to past scars and lost limbs. Even at the top, where it stood above the surrounding forest, the tree was still four feet in diameter. It had apparently lost its upper-
most part to many of the hurricanes that had crashed ashore not too far from there; and over the span of its life, it had no doubt seen many such storms. We figured the age of the tree to be at least one thousand years old, given that many such cypress trees had been discovered in southeast North Carolina over the years, and had been given life spans of well over that. Our task was to mark a buffer around the nest tree, to stay within the guidelines prescribed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We carried GPS devices to help us measure the correct distance we had to stay away from the tree. As the day progressed, we worked on encircling the tree with a painted line. It was cool to see how easily the tree stood out from even a great distance. Considering we were in a swamp, loaded with trees, it is usually hard to see any great distance, with 100 yards usually being the limit. The nest tree was so large, it dominated the swamp. Even from 200 yards away, the tree could still be seen. What a view the eagles had from that vantage point. All movement in the swamp was theirs to be seen, to observe, or to react to. This is exactly how an eagle operates. When it begins searching for a nesting site, it will search for a specific tree, one
that is tall, old, and large. It must be one that has survived some storms and not easily swayed by a strong blow. It is the tree that dominates the landscape. Like a watchtower, it captures a panoramic view of the surrounding area. Give the sharpeyed eagle a good watchtower and very little will escape its piercing glare. No food source is safe; no intruder enters undetected. In ancient Israel, it was common for a city to have a watchtower. It stood above the collected dwellings, above the fortified wall if the city had one. From there a designated watchman scanned the horizon, looking for danger. If the city was attacked, the watchman had to sound the alarm. After reminding Ezekiel of the importance of the watchman to the community (Ezekiel 33:1-3), God then declared in verse 7, that he, Ezekiel, was to be the spiritual watchman for his people: “…I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore, you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me.” Failure of the watchman to call out the warning would result in devastation to the city. People would be caught unprepared, unarmed, and at the mercy of their enemies. Such failure was not tolerated. The blame and the shame were placed on the watchman if he failed to warn the city. You and I live in a sorry swamp of a world. The evening news is full of murder, rape, and exploitation. Men, women, and children seem to be slogging through a muddy, murky swamp surrounded by hos-
tiles that seek to trip, drown, or devour them. And yet there, towering above the swamp is a watchtower. Upon it sits the One who never slumbers or sleeps. His eyes see the next step in front of us; he knows where each hidden danger is as we wade through the swamp. And as the eagle will shriek from its perch a warning, and as Ezekiel shouted out warnings to God’s people, God desires to call a warning to us. A warning to heed his Word, to take his salvation, so freely offered. We are invited to accept the gift of grace that he desires to shower upon us, as the Apostle Paul declares in II Corinthians 6:2b: “…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” There is a warning that we are not promised tomorrow, as declared by the watchman James in James 4:14: “…whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Another warning telling us that we are being stalked comes from the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” We will not survive the swamp if we ignore the One who sits guard in the watchtower. He speaks to us through our friends, our family, our pastors, our teachers, and directly to us through the Bible. Will you lisSLT ten? Excerpted from Trees, Traps, and Truth, Bradley Antill, author; available from onatreeforestry.com
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