TURGOR!

   Redwood tree by Nickolay Maslov on Unsplash.

Oh Lord my God
When I, in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds 
Thy hands have made
I see the stars, (I see the trees), 
I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!!!!’

Ever think about how a tree moves water from its roots to the top?  Even if the top of the tree is a redwood on the coast of California that is 380 feet tall!  It’s called ‘turgor’ pressure, which is the pressure exerted by fluid in a cell (mostly water) that presses the cell membrane against the plant’s cell wall. This pressure comes from the hydrogen bonds between water molecules.  These hydrogen bonds create amazing, unique properties to water molecules like adhesion and cohesion.  This facilitates the push/pull attraction to each other that allows water and nutrients to move upwards from the roots to the top of even a tall tree through the xylem vessels (vascular tissue in plants).  As some say, water molecules are ‘sticky’.  That is why you can pull water up a straw!  Believe it or not, a tree’s root cell turgor pressure can be ‘three times that of a car tire’ or up to 210 pounds per square inch!!! (Physics Stack Exchange.) No wonder it can push water to the top of the tree!  Awesome!

Not only that, but its roots can break rock or concrete (especially sidewalks) as they continue to grow in girth.  In addition, as the tree or plant absorbs water, it swells what are called ‘guard cells’ that open the ‘stomata’, minute pores in the epidermis of a leaf or stem.  The stomata open to allow oxygen (as a waste product of photosynthesis) to escape the leaf, and carbon dioxide (needed for photosynthesis) to enter. When these stomata are open, water vapor exits, or transpires.  Believe it or not, an acre of corn will transpire about 3,000–4,000 gallons of water each day, and a large oak tree can transpire 40,000 gallons each year.  (The Science of Plants)  
If there isn’t enough water in the soil, the ‘guard cells’ close, keeping the water in the plant or tree.  This is critically important to cacti that grow where water is scarce!

As the water leaves the tree or plant, it pulls more water in from the roots!!!!  Absolutely amazing!  And this is happening all around us all the time!

That is why I said in the beginning of this post, ‘How great thou art!’  Plants are another of the wonders of God!  They caused the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson to write one of my favorite poems:  Flower in the crannied wall.  (A cranny is a small, narrow space or opening).

Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower—but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, all in all, 
I should know what God and man is.           Alfred Lord Tennyson

He is right!  You can know what God is because ‘the invisible things about Him are clearly seen in the things He has made!’  Romans 1:20. ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.’  Who else could invent such a phenomenal system of hydraulics using only the basic laws of physics and the simple manipulation of potential energy from water.  God is a remarkable hydraulic engineer!  We can know that God is love!  After all, He gave us trees and plants that provide us with food, oxygen, and flowers!

 ‘Tiny plant grows in crack of concrete’
photo by Deardavidyan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

And from the flower in the crannied wall, we can also know what man is!!!!  
It’s another lesson from the ‘Book of Nature’! 

Man is courageous!  He can grow wherever he is planted!  (See the photo above of a plant growing in a crack of concrete.)  As the expression says, ‘Bloom where you are planted!  He can overcome adversity and break the concrete barriers of life!

Especially if he has Christ in his life who promises that ‘he is more than a conqueror’!
‘That he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him.’  That he can ‘bear fruit’, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ and be beautiful!!!                                                                   

Think about Jose M. Hernandez who was born in Mexico, grew up as a migrant farm worker and had a dream to be an astronaut!  When he shared his dream with his girlfriend, she laughed in his face.  With perseverance, help from his community and sacrifice he accomplished a seemingly impossible dream.  He became a NASA Flight Engineer and Astronaut!!!  Talk about someone growing up in a crack in the sidewalk!!!  He definitely broke the concrete around him!  They made a movie about him called, ‘A Million Miles Away’!  You can click on the link below to watch the official trailer: 

Another thought.  It takes thousands of water molecules to build up enough pressure to move water up a plant stem or tree trunk.  Each molecule only contributes a minute amount of pressure and yet the end result is healthy, beautiful, fruit bearing and or blossoming plants and trees, even if the tree is 380 feet tall!  It is another amazing metaphor that God has provided to encourage us that if we each contribute even a small amount to the ‘body of Christ’ (the church) a business or our family, we can together accomplish great and meaningful things!!!

BE ENCOURAGED!
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE