Gopherwood

By William Delbert Secrest

A great bedtime story for your children or grandchildren. Build a spiritual foundation early, and they will not stray from it. This is the Gospel of John as told by the tree that was the Cross of Jesus. A novel and different way of telling the most important story in the world!

Your child will never forget how important even a tree can be for the salvation of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Delbert Secrest
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301714179

Book preview

Gopherwood

William D. Secrest

Copyright 2010 by William D. Secrest

Smashwords Edition

STORY FOREWARD

Children, while I’m sure that you know trees don’t really see, hear, or think, I’m also sure you know that trees do have a sense of their surroundings. Trees know light from dark, cold from hot, wet from dry, and they do respond to insect attacks and fire. So, for the basis of this story, let’s just pretend that trees have some of the same senses that we humans do. Also, I’m using the term Gopherwood for the species or type of the tree in the story. While we do not know what a Gopherwood tree is today, it may have been a kind of a tree or the name meant either wood covered with tar or a squared beam. It was the wood according to the Bible that Noah used to build the ark. Do you remember the story of Noah and the Ark? Yes, of course you do. Noah was told by God to build an ark, or a really large boat, and he used Gopherwood because it grew so very straight and strong. The ark was used by God to save mankind when He destroyed the world with a flood. It also saved all of the animals. You remember, all of the animals came two by two and went into the ark. We are all descendants of Noah and his family because they were all of the people who were left that survived the flood. Just think, were it not for the ark, made of Gopherwood, we might not even be here today! Remember this fact when you hear the story I’m telling. See if you think after hearing the story if Gopherwood may have been used again to save mankind. Anyway, today we don’t know what tree species it was that was called Gopherwood, but in this story let’s imagine that the Wise Men who came from the East at the birth of Jesus knew what Gopherwood was.

CHAPTER ONE

Wise Man planted a tree seed in the ground on a late evening a long time ago. He was a very wise man. He had traveled far in search of a Baby. He had found the Baby, not just any Baby, but the Baby Jesus! He and his two companions had found the Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger in Bethlehem. Bethlehem was the village where the mighty King David was born, and the Wise Man had always been told that he was a descendant of David. The seed he planted was from a Gopherwood tree. Gopherwood was famed for its strength, its straight grain and for its fast growth. Why, it was the wood that Noah used to build his Ark!

Wise Man planted the seed on a plot of fertile land just outside of the small town of Bethany, which was located a short day’s walk from the larger city of Jerusalem. He planted the seed because it was the custom in his homeland to plant a tree as a memorial to an ancestor. He planted it in memory of King David and also to honor the Baby Jesus that he