What Trees Tell Us About God and Ourselves (Lessons from Muir Woods)

Tom Faletti
Sep 12
5 min read

A trip to Muir Woods reveals how much God loves variety. Can we delight in every tree, and every human being, as he does?

The gnarly brown trunk of a tree in a green forest has a burl that looks like the face of a gnome. — Can you see the face of a gnome in the burl of this gnarly redwood tree in Muir Woods National Monument? Photo by Tom Faletti, 2 Sept. 2025.

Last week, my family spent a day in Muir Woods National Monument, north of San Francisco, the home of giant redwood trees preserved by the National Park Service.

Redwoods are spectacular not just because they rank among the tallest living things on Earth, but also because of their variety and character, which tell us something about God and ourselves.

In Muir Woods, the bark of each tree is different

Consider the bark on these redwoods. It is not smooth and symmetrical. Every tree’s bark is unique.

Humans are known for their patternicity (or apophenia) – the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random data (for example, finding animal shapes in clouds). That human trait allows me to see a gnome face in the tree at the top of this post, which is magnified in the first photo below (do you see it?).

Every tree’s bark formation is different: different in shape, different in ruggedness, different in color.

Three photos show a tree burl that looks like a gnome face, a tree with many brown burls, and a tree with reddish bark. — Trees in Muir Woods. Photos by Tom Faletti, 2 Sept. 2025.

Each tree brings glory to God

Although they are all different, the trees have many things in common, including this: Each one brings glory to God.

Psalm 96 says:

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice….

Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. (Psalm 96:11-13)

Isaiah foretells that when the Messiah comes, “all the trees of the field will clap their hands” (Is. 55:12).

It is in the nature of a tree to honor its Creator. I sensed this in Muir Woods. The individual trees, and the forest as a whole, bring glory to God and joy to the earth, simply by being what they were meant to be.

Each human is also different on the surface, and all are designed to manifest God’s glory

Humans exhibit a similar variability and uniqueness: different in skin color, different in markings (people sometimes call them “blemishes” but they are marks of our uniqueness), different in shape and size. Yet we are all designed to honor God by manifesting his character on the earth. Humans make judgments based on outer appearances; God see beauty manifested in unique and varied ways – in us just as in the trees.

In Jesus’s first sermon recorded in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor . . .” (Luke 4:18).

Jesus is quoting Isaiah 61:1-2. The next verse in Isaiah says that the people for whom he has come “will be called oaks of righteousness, planted by the Lord to display his glory” (Isaiah 61:3).

Trees with rugged trunks soar high into the sky in a forest. — Trees in Muir Woods. Photo by Tom Faletti, 2 Sept. 2025.

Jesus came to earth so that we, like the trees, might manifest God’s glory – each in our own unique way. When we live our lives in accordance with what we were meant to be, as the trees do, then we will be following St. Paul’s call to “do everything for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

The uniqueness of tree roots

Trees have an endless variety of roots, mostly underground where we cannot see them. But in Muir Woods, we could sometimes see a tree’s roots due to erosion, as shown here:

Three photos of tree roots exposed below and next to a tree. — Tree roots in Muir Woods. Photos by Tom Faletti, 2 Sept. 2025.

Seeing these roots makes me think that a tree’s root structure might be as unique as a human’s fingerprint: no two alike. These roots sustain the tree even when conditions are not perfect.

The uniqueness of human roots

Humans, too, have a root structure that is endlessly varied. No two people have the same story. Our history and experiences are different. The structure of our lives that has helped make us what we are is different for every human being.

Our “roots” are our family background, our cultures, and past experiences. They ground us and can nourish us. And they make us all different.

Some people are threatened by these differences. They want everyone to conform to their image of a proper human being.

But God sees variability and differences as a feature, not a defect, of his human creation – an intentional element of his plan to produce a nearly infinite number of creatures that can manifest his glory.

When we live according to the uniqueness built into us, and do so in a way that is consistent with God’s character, we add to the chorus of glory sung by the trees. When we encourage others to live according to their God-ordained uniqueness, we enhance the song of joy that echoes from Muir Woods and every other place on earth – a song of joy that God has invited all humans to join in.

The variety in creation brings joy to God

There are two ways we might think about how the variety in Muir Woods came to be.

One possibility is that God directly designed every detail of every tree, like an artist. I can picture him delighting in every little work of his hands.

The other possibility is that God set the forces of evolution in motion, and the creation itself, having been empowered by God, produced the beauty, variation, and artistry that makes Muir Woods and the rest of our world so amazing. In this view of creation, God is like a parent who provides roots to children who go forth and produce beauty in a wide variety of ways. Or God is like an engineer who thrills when what he or she has created in turn makes new things.

Whether God lovingly designed each tree individually, or lovingly designed a system that he could watch with joy as it produced each individual tree, doesn’t change these key points:

Either way, God is behind it all.
Either way, every redwood tree (and every human) manifests the creativity and glory of God.
Either way, all of us are invited to find joy in the variety of trees and people God has made.