Epic Forest

I am staying with a Christian family in North East London, having come down on Monday. On arrival, the sun was shining and hot; off went the shirt and chinos, on went the shorts and tee. When I explore what is still one of the greatest and largest cities in the world, I am invariably amazed at how close one is to greenery and open space. I set off through Leyton Flats and on to the southern-most part of Epping Forest. Unlike some of our local ‘forests’, chiefly Bowland and Pendle, Epping is still characterised by trees. And the occupants of their branches, the blackbirds, thrushes and robins, as well as the green, rose-ringed parakeets, were squawking and singing to their hearts’ content.

Regular readers will already know how I am habitually inclined to draw parallels between our beautiful woodlands and gardens and the Eden from which our first parents were evicted. Curiously, within or just without the grounds of this green corridor, were two buildings of note: Snaresbrook Crown Court, a rather imposing seat of justice, and one of the busiest in the country, and the Church of St Peter in the Forest, a source of spiritual hope and light. I shall write about both in due course, but their presence close to the great Epping Forest reminded me, again, of Eden. It was the place where God first pronounced righteous judgement and retribution upon our parents, but also where He first shared the hope of a future deliverer, the Messiah, the Serpent-Crusher.

The next time you find yourself under a canopy of trees and beside carpets of bluebells, remember not just the beauty of God’s creation, nor the austerity of His justice, but, primarily, the magnificence of His saving grace.

“For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." Isaiah 55:12