Does nature mirror God or does God mirror nature? Even before the saving cross, there was the killing tree. Even before the muck and mire of human existence, there was the dense forest. Even before the sugar daddy or supermom to exploit, there was the giant sequoia trees.

In order to survive, some plants, as humans, cling to a supporting host. Mere survival soon gives way to the need to flourish. No longer satisfied to be hidden in the shadows of obscurity, these young upstarts climb assiduously on the backs of their supporters. This is accomplished at great expense to the maturity of the landscape.

Rooted in taking more and more life from the giants of their habitat, stranglers replace the ones that they literally loved to death. For their own day in the sun, stranglers shut-in life and turn out the light on their host. Once the last-willed sustenance has been extracted, the host is replaced, if not forgotten.

As Logan Pearsall Smith suggested, "Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon, soon discover that there is no God"!