Up the Wrong Tree

It's one of the most famous trees in all of literature: the tree in the Garden of Eden.

Bob Kaylor, Senior Writer here at Homiletics, tells the following story: "When I was a kid I used to spend part of every summer at the farm my uncle and aunt owned out in rural Western Pennsylvania. I usually went during the time to put up hay, probably because I was small enough to tuck the bales into the spaces at the top of the barn once we brought the wagon back in. Those were some great times -- drinking ice cold whole milk straight from the dairy barn, riding the tractors and taking a dip in the river when it got too hot.

"My cousins liked an evening activity that I never quite understood, however, and that was hunting raccoons at night. If you've never been part of this activity, let me describe it to you succinctly -- you run at top speed, chasing a barking dog through the woods while shining a flashlight until the dog stops at a tree and barks madly into the darkness where you see ... nothing. We never bagged one. In fact, I'm certain I never saw a raccoon on those hunts (and...