I’ve heard of identical twins dying on the same day, but who has ever heard of twin-oaks being erased from the world on the same day? Many years ago, a friend gave me oak-triplets – one I gave away, one I kept in its pot to attempt to make a bonsai, and the third I planted in the front garden, where it grew to a height of three metres. But a few weeks ago, a mysterious intruder cut it down, and strangely, its bonsai-twin, located some 300km away, also mysteriously died. Of a broken heart?

Yet would you believe it: resting quietly on my dining-room cupboard, sits an acorn that, some months ago, my wife had innocently picked up from the base of the tree in the garden. What a lovely surprise to know that a descendant lives, as does the hope of a great oak for my grandchildren to climb – if only I can outwit my dendrophobic neighbour.

In the Book, there’s always a surviving acorn. Cain kills Abel, but an acorn will appear. Ishmael persecutes Isaac, but an acorn is found. Esau harbours murderous intent against his twin, but an acorn survives. Saul thrusts a deadly spear at David, but the acorn is not lost. And so on and so forth, until the Tree appears. And though it was once strangely cut down, it quickly grew again, but this time bigger, and filled the earth, and became home to all who wanted to climb its branches.