The Worshipping Oak Tree

 

"...that they may be called oaks of righteousness, lofty, strong,
and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right
standing with God, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
(Isaiah 61:3)

The Worshipping Oak

(2012)

Haverhill, Massachusetts

Photograph courtesy/Wikipedia

This massive Oak tree once served as the Sabbath meeting place
for sixteen hundred pilgrim settlers in Haverhill, Massachusetts
until the year 1648, when a Meeting House was built there.

They were strangers in a strange land and faced many hardships.

The pilgrims who gathered to worship beneath this tree,
and those who arrived after them to live in the New World,
are often compared to believers in the early church of Berea,
 whom not only memorized the Holy Scriptures, but carefully 
 studied the Word of God.   It was while studying the appointed
feasts, or the times of God's Holy Convocations for His people and
nation, Israel, that some of our pilgrim ancestors were inspired to
  hold a special celebration of praise and worship
 which we now call Thanksgiving.

"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow."
-Old English proverb

 These earliest settlers, who had come to live in a land which one day 
would be called America  knew that no matter what happened to
 them in their lives,  like the mighty oak tree, they were solidly
planted in their unshakable faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love?  Shall suffering,
affliction and tribulation?  Or calamity or distress? Or persecution
or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?

Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long;
we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a
surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

For I am persuaded beyond doubt, am sure, that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and
threatening nor things to come, nor powers,

Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be
able to separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 8:35-39)

The Worshipping Tree in Haverhill Massachusetts was said to be
over 350 years old before it fell over in 2017.  Pieces of this tree
were made into works of art and were sold to benefit 
 the Buttonwoods Museum, which is operated by the
Haverhill Historical Society.