{"id":62507,"date":"2025-12-12T15:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worlds-tallest-tree-starts-like-flake-of-oatmeal\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T15:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:13:00","slug":"worlds-tallest-tree-starts-like-flake-of-oatmeal","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worlds-tallest-tree-starts-like-flake-of-oatmeal\/","title":{"rendered":"World&#8217;s Tallest Tree Starts Like a Flake of Oatmeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The world&#39;s biggest tree starts small. The seeds of a giant Sequoia look like flakes of oatmeal and are thin and papery. The cones they come out of are only two or 3 inches long &ndash; probably smaller than the pine cones you&#39;ve seen. And of course, when they&#39;re new, gangly seedlings, the trees are small, too, but give them a few hundred years, and just one of those seedlings will weigh as much as 300 cars &ndash; and be taller than a 20 story building. Even in the world of towering trees, Sequoia&#39;s are giants.<\/p>\n\n<p>The biggest tree in the world, a 270 foot tall Sequoia called the general Sherman, is 36.5 feet wide at ground level &ndash; almost the length of a city bus! Sequoia trunks can be so big, a rancher wants carved a one room house out of one, and the tree kept growing.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[4104,4326,4632,5004,5049,5257,5258],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-62507","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-growth","tax_ctp_tags-kingdom-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-personal-growth","tax_ctp_tags-small-things","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-growth","tax_ctp_tags-waiting","tax_ctp_tags-waiting-on-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>World&#039;s Tallest Tree Starts Like a Flake of Oatmeal - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worlds-tallest-tree-starts-like-flake-of-oatmeal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World&#039;s Tallest Tree Starts Like a Flake of Oatmeal - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The world&#039;s biggest tree starts small. 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