“The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe.

Because its handle was made of wood.”

— Old proverb (Turkish origin)

The forest believed the axe belonged. Its handle looked like them, felt like them, even grew from the same soil. But resemblance is not righteousness. It’s an image of trust misplaced—of good things undone by what feels familiar. The trees never questioned the axe because it spoke their language. It looked harmless, even useful. But what they didn’t see was the steel hidden beneath the wood.

We live in a world where everything looks familiar. Voices sound like ours, faces smile like ours, and even words of faith can be assembled by machines. Artificial intelligence now mimics not only our art and music but our emotions, our prayers, our very sense of wonder. We scroll through images that never existed and listen to voices that were never alive.

It’s no longer the serpent in the garden we fear—it’s the echo that sounds like Eden.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 7:15 (ESV)

Jesus warned us long before any of this. He was speaking about more than religion. He was describing how deception always borrows the shape of something true. Discernment today is no longer optional; it’s a survival skill for the soul. Not every face we see or word we hear carries breath behind it. Not every beam of light carries warmth. And not every story that moves us comes from the heart of man. The danger is not only that we will believe what is false—it’s that we will stop caring what is real.

The trees thought the axe was one of them because its handle was made of wood. We, too, may lose what is living if we surrender our hunger for truth to the convenience of imitation.

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.

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