Farming Life in East Sussex

There is a Christian farmer in East Sussex who has spent years planting and pruning thousands of willow trees to create a Bible verse that can be read-only from the sky. The farmer started this incredible task in the 1990s on his farm near Whitesmith, East Sussex.   He chose John chapter 14 verse 6 to patiently cultivate. The willow trees spell out words spoken in answer to the question, ‘How can we know the way?” Jesus replied, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’. As well as a message, his carefully spaced “many thousands” of willow trees form a maze. 

 

The maze has been used by friends and members of his local church and although the farmer knew that his maze was well set out, it was only after a number of years he was shown a picture of it taken from above from a helicopter. Now every time he sees a plane going over, he offers up a little prayer that people will see the verse and it will help them to trust in and follow Jesus. So, close up it is a maze with people trying hard to find their way through, but from above it is an easily read message. 

Sometimes we may find Bible truth like that, but if we move our standpoint, all becomes clear. For instance, take the person of Jesus Christ. From an earthly point of view, we try to understand Him and what He said, and in doing so we may have difficulties and have to discount so much of what the Bible states that He did and said – it is a maze! Of course, from the other viewpoint – like looking down from the aeroplane to see the trees - all becomes clear. Jesus’s message IS that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

So how do we change views from earth to sky or heaven? The most obvious thing is to ask, who is Jesus Christ and where did He come from and why did He come. If He was only a man, then these questions have no meaning that could not even be derived from His genealogy. 

However, He claimed to be the Son of God, who came into this world at His Father’s instruction. He came to show us what God is like and He came to bring us back to God. In this respect, everything pointed forward to His death. He said that He had come to give His life a ransom for many. So, for those of us who have come into the good of this, we now have freedom, paid for by His life. 

 

Jesus said that, with regard to things in the spiritual realm, He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one could come to the Father, God, by any other means than through Him. Now, these are strong words, but as Jesus once said to His enemies ‘I am a man who told you the truth’.  

 

Is Jesus’ teaching a maze to you and me, or a message? Try looking from the other viewpoint, move up and take an overall view. To be practical, we should start by reading the first chapter of John’s Gospel. This is the view from the sky that puts the life and teaching of Jesus into context. It says that He is Divine, being the agent of creation, so nothing was made without Him. It says that He is the One who communicates God to us, He is the Word who tells God out and then it tells us that the Word became flesh in order that He could become our Saviour.

Messages with Meaning (12/01/21) Written by Peter Francis for Your 542Day