The book, The Man Who Planted Trees, may be an unusual place to have begun a spiritual journey but, in my case, it happens to be true.

I first recall reading the short, little book 20 years ago and it has been working on my soul ever since. The effect has been so profound, in fact, that I am now emulating the book’s main character by planting trees. (In my case, I am partial to oak trees and it is my intention to start nurturing an oak savannah, which will only grow to maturity after I’ve died.)

If you are not familiar with The Man Who Planted Trees, it was written by Jean Giono in 1953 and chronicles the fictional tale of Elzeard Bouffier, a humble shepherd who wages a single-handed and decades-long battle to reforest a desolate valley in France in the wake of the First World War.

Exactly why the book touched my soul so powerfully is not hard for me to discern. As a Celtic Christian, I’ve long found it most easy to experience the Divine in nature, and the simple act of planting trees is, for me, an act of prayer. (I’ve long subscribed to the wisdom found in Robert Ingersoll’s saying: “The hands that help are better than the lips that pray.” The picture to the right is of me planting trees at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN.)

I now re-read The Man Who Planted Trees every year (FYI: It can be read in less than an hour), and its impact continues to grow within me.

As a professional futurist, I’ve long loved the wisdom inherent in the ancient Greek proverb that says: “Societies grow great when old men plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.” Now that I am older, I want to put this wisdom into action.

We have a sacred responsibility to leave future generations a healthy and inhabitable earth. Unfortunately, as a society, we are failing in this responsibility and, at a personal level, I am failing. I intend to rectify this by doing my small part to help restore Mother Earth by planting trees.

Let me now conclude by speaking of this matter in terms of my Christian faith. I believe in eternal life, but I will admit that I am unclear as to how eternal life unfolds. (Remember the words of Isaiah 55:9– “As the heavens are higher than earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”) As such, I am open to the possibility that reincarnation is real. If it is, it stands to reason that we will need healthy places to which our souls can return.

Now, I don’t expect my soul to return to the small plot of land my wife and I will restore but if another soul does, I believe we’ll be able to take some eternal comfort in knowing we did our best to honor the covenant between God and ourselves. (Genesis 9:13– “I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and earth.”)