” Dad! Dad!” It was the voice of my daughter calling me as she ran toward my office. My wife was just back from the photo shop and I knew Kerryn wanted to show me the developed pictures she had taken some time ago.

“Look Dad, look!” she said as we looked through the pictures together.

“Can I keep this picture?” I asked her.

“Of Course,” was the quick reply . It was a picture of “Tane Mahuta” and I had actually forgotten about the trip when the picture was taken.

In front of my writing table is a map of the northern part of Northland. Between Waimamaku and Katui on the east side of the map is the Waipoua State Forest. When com ing from Opononi in the north, driving south through Waimamaku, one enters the forest and right at the beginning of the forest can be seen in big letters on the map “BIG TREE”. The big tree is “Tane Mahuta”, a giant Kauri tree. The Kauri is a native conifer or cone-bearing tree, and oozes a valuable resin-kauri gum.

“Tane Mahuta” is the Maori name for this big tree and its meaning is “Lord of the Forest.”It is the largest tree in the Waipoua Forest and is estimated to be 1200 years old. It is 51 metres high, and has a girth of 14 metres at the height of 4,5 metres from the ground. Its trunk is clear of all lateral branches for 12 metres.

I had heard that sometimes with these giant trees the inside can be rotten. This was confirmed from information I found at the local library.

When I was reading about the rottenness of the inside of some of these trees I was reminded of some people who call themselves Christians. These are people with a good outside appearance and other people are often quite impressed with them because they appear to be the real thing.

But God knows what we are like on the inside and he is not impressed with a seemingly good outside appearance. The Bible, the Word of God, says in Romans 3:12,” All have turned away. They have together become worthless”. And in Romans 3:23 it says,” For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The Bible says that there must be a complete change from within. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John,” You must be born again”. Although he was religious this man still needed to own up to his sinfulness and accept the Lord Jesus as his personal Saviour. The Bible also says in Second Corinthians 5:17.” Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone , the NEW has come”!

Do you know that you are born again? Do you know that you are a new creation in Christ? We can know. The Bible says so. You need to make sure of this while you still have the opportunity of doing so.

wd