How Do Trees Survive the Winter?
Evergreen Specialty Needles:
An evergreen needs photosynthesis in order to stay green, but in order for this to happen, it has to have water. With the ground frozen during the winter months, where does the water come from to keep the “evergreen” forever green?
What about Deciduous Trees?
Before winter hits we enjoy raking huge piles of leaves and jumping in them! What are deciduous trees? Trees that lose their leaves! Evergreen trees are called conifers. Just think of pinecones, and that will help you to remember!
How Deciduous Trees Prepare for Autumn:
Every autumn, all over the colder parts of the world, trees are getting ready for winter. All through spring and summer, their leaves have acted like little factories – busily making food.
During this season, they have:
• Absorbed carbon dioxide from the air.
• Drawn water from the soil.
• Used sunlight in a complex process called photosynthesis (allowing them to store food in the form of starches and sugars.)
During autumn, the leaves on the tree turn from green to varying shades of yellow, red, and orange. At the point where each leaf stem is attached to a twig, special layers of cells grow, making a wall. This blocks the water flow to the leaf, revealing colors hidden during the spring and summer by the green chlorophyll of the photosynthesis reactions. This wall also seals the gaping hole in the twig when the dead leaf falls off. Because the leaves have stopped needing water, the roots stop pulling water from the soil.
Winter Rising:
The onset of winter means freezing temperatures; and just like our fingers, frozen leaves do not work well! Frozen groundwater does not flow.
By the time winter arrives, food production stops and trees close down. The trees' water-transfer “pipes” have been drained – and this keeps the tree from being damaged on the inside because water expands when it freezes, and this could really hurt the tree.
Getting Ready for Spring:
The tree also needs to be ready for the next spring, so even before it shuts down for the winter, while it is still actively growing during the summer, it starts forming next year’s leaves. These leaves are packaged as neat little buds with weather-resistant scales in order to survive the harsh winter. When spring arrives, the tree is ready to reveal its hidden miniature leaves.
Going back and looking at the Evergreen tree, remember that we said: “An evergreen needs photosynthesis in order to stay green, but in order for this to happen, it has to have water.”
As Christians, in order for us to have “Eternal life” we must have Living Water!
In John chapter 4 there is a story of a woman from Samaria coming to Jacob’s well to draw water.
Jesus was there waiting for her because he knew that she was searching and thirsty for something that would last. She was empty inside. She needed to know Jesus.
He told her that whoever drank of his water would never thirst again!
Jesus was talking about being fulfilled.
Many people today do not realize that the empty feeling they have is for Jesus to come into their heart and forgive them from their sin. They are born with a desire for ‘something’ more than what they already have. This is natural.
This makes people try crazy things to try to fill the empty place in their hearts. They try gambling to fill that void, or drinking, drugs, and medications to try to cope.
Jesus was telling this woman that he could cure whatever desire she had because he was the answer to what she was looking for!
He was not talking about the water that we drink, but she thought he was! Then, as they began talking Jesus made it clear to her that he was the Messiah sent to save the world.
This lady was excited! She left her water pot at the well and ran back into the town and told everyone who Jesus was and that he was God because he told her all she did in her life!
This woman believed in Jesus Christ and later on, Jesus must have been thinking about that conversation when he said that whoever believed in him, out of his belly would flow out rivers of living water!
As Christians, we give this Living Water to others by witnessing to them because Jesus is that living water that gives to anyone who asks, Everlasting Life! And we cannot have that everlasting life without Him!
