An acorn and an oak tree: Are they different beings?
Let’s ponder, beneath the surface….

Contrary to what our senses and emotions may tell us, an acorn and an oak tree are actually the same being, with a considerably different look due to the difference in the stage of development. The problem with understanding this is that we often use the word “tree” to refer to the object’s species, when in reality it is just its adult stage of maturity. “Oak” is its species. In other words, ‘oak’ is to ‘tree’ what ‘human’ is to ‘adult’. Likewise, oak is to human what tree is to adult.  Oak is a species of being within the plant kingdom while human is a species of being within the animal kingdom. An ‘oak tree’ is like say a ‘human adult’; it is the full maturity of the oak.

So where does an acorn fit in? An acorn is dropped from an adult oak by asexual reproduction and ordered to be planted in the ground by the elements. In its natural environment without interruption it will grow into a tall beautiful oak tree. It is an actual oak and a potential tree, like a human embryo is an actual human and a potential adult. All that’s needed in both cases is proper nourishment into maturity. Just as an acorn needs to be embedded into the ground, an embryo needs to be embedded into his/her mother’s uterine wall.

Therefore, a proper comparison between an oak and a man can be loosely distinguished like this:

Species:  Oak=Human.

Stages of maturity:  acorn=embryo, sprout=baby, sapling=adolescent, tree=adult.   And let’s not forget, earth=womb.

An acorn may look nothing like an oak tree to the naked eye, and an embryo may not look like anything like an adult human too. Nonetheless, what an object looks like does not always equate to what it actually is.  Like an acorn is an oak in its youngest form, so too an embryo is a man in the beginning of his life.