Heavenly message in field took dedicated farmer twenty years to create

A farmer has reaped what he sowed after trees he planted 20 years ago finally revealed a message only those from above can read.

Peter Gunner, 62, planted dozens of willow trees two decades ago and has pruned them to spell out his favourite Bible passage, John 14:6: "Jesus said to him: 'I am the way, the truth, and life'."

But the message can only be seen from the air.

The committed Christian created his own Garden of Eden in his Sussex field so visitors wandering through the thick maze could experience his metaphor for life.

He said: "You walk around in it but you don't really know what your life is going to look like from above."

The creation at his home Burchetts Farm is the second time he has attempted the ambitious project.

His first attempt in the 1990s was a disaster. Instead of forming in a pretty pattern of words he ended up with a thorny mess of thistles which mean he had to start all over again.

For his second attempt the religious farmer mapped the words on a computer before getting to work on the field armed with a tape measure and string.

Despite years of pruning Mr Gunner only saw his labor of love for the first time recently, when a police officer neighbour gave him an aerial picture taken for a helicopter.

Unfortunately, the aerial images highlighted slight mistakes in his creation - the top of the J is slightly wonky and the 'a' in 'am' is askew - but he hopes to fix them one day.