Axing The Noble

 In 1892 publicists were looking for attractions for the 1893 world fair. Hundreds of letters were sent all over the nation soliciting potential attractions. A small community in California received one of those letters and go the idea of sending a section of a giant Sequoia tree. Few people around the world even believed such massive trees existed. So a dream was born. To cut a section of one of those massive trees and ship it to Chicago for the 1893 World Fair. 

Once permission was secured to fell one of the big trees the plan went into motion. The owner of the timber could not bring himself to cut the biggest tree down, so they chose the second largest. Towering among all other trees but one.  The circumference of the tree was 101' around. A massive sight. 

It took four axe men 13 straight days to cut the tree down. 312 hours. 1,248 man hours. Countless swings. Repeated sharpening of the axe head. Refueling and refreshing through nourishment and rest. Continuous labor. Teamwork. The resolve to complete the task for the whole world to see. You know they got tired. You know the task was harder than they first imagined. The Noble Tree as it came to be known did not give up its fight for life easily. They had to build scaffolding fifty feet off the ground to accomplish the task. Those four men kept swinging. Hour after hour. Day after day. One week and one day shy of two weeks. 

Can you imagine the thrill when the massive mighty tree finally gave way and fell. I try to imagine the vibration of the earth as the tree thudded to the earth and the cloud of dust that rose like a mushroom cloud from an atom bomb. What an impressive accomplishment. 

The work was not done. They dug out a 50' section of the widest part and made it into a two story structure with a room on top. Once the World's Fair ended they moved the tree to Washington DC where it remained a tourist attraction for nearly 40 years. 

It all started with a dream and four men who were willing to put in the work to make the dream come true. The labored for a cause much bigger than themselves. 

The job was much too large for just one person. Just like the task of taking Jesus to our community is too large for one person, one class or even one church. Estimates that very soon there will be over 300,000 people in Parker County. All the churches combined could not hold that many people. 

Expand that task to taking the gospel of Jesus to the whole world and we are reminded we need help. Help from one another. We need teams to help. We need missionaries to die to the American dream and go follow the call of God to take the gospel to those who have never heard. We also need God's help. Only He can empower us to stay at it until the task is done. Christians have been at this task for over 2,000 years. There are still those who have not heard. We must keep swinging our gospel axes until people fall in surrender to salvation and nations fall to Jesus  jut like the Noble Tree fell to those four axe men. Until the whole world hears.