Upheld In Trees

In the Beginning …

It started with two trees in a beautiful garden. Imagine the sun pleasantly warming your skin every day. You could wander wherever you want, eat whatever you want, and it would satisfy you without padding your body. Chatting and laughing with your best friend without a care in the world.

Then, in the cool of the evening, He would come and walk through the trees with you, sharing the activities of the day, exchanging ideas, laughing at jokes. How satisfying to know that all is secure and as it should be.

Beauty surrounds you and when you stand on the mountain top, you can see forever.

But …

Glancing at the two trees would raise curiosity. One would open up the knowledge of good and evil. And, after all, we were made to inquire and research and discover.

The other tree would make sure that we would live forever. Everyone wants to live forever, right?

It seems we just don’t appreciate what we have until we don’t have it.

Tree of Destruction

One tree brought destruction. Maybe we could have done without the knowledge of good and evil, don’t you think? And there is that cliché about hindsight bringing clear vision.

I always speculate (have you ever wondered?) if God might have been unkind in kicking Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. He even placed angels with flaming swords at the edge of the garden so nobody could creep back in.

I wonder if they looked back at their former home as they began their new life in the new land of knowledge only to see nothing behind them. Eden had disappeared from their eyesight. The beauty of the trees and flowers and the comfort of security—all gone. Not even seen. A new life lay before them. And us.

Mystique About Trees 

I am not a tree hugger, but I do love trees. So many beautiful varieties, some provide nourishing fruits and nuts for us, some do not. Some have berries I would not touch! Trees refresh our environment. Trees afford homes for critters of all kinds.

One of my favorite pastimes is to study trees when I walk. My friends will attest to how many times I have to stop to take a photo of something unusual that I see in a tree. Maybe I am not so strange, it seems that many people love to watch the trees change with the seasons. A feast for the soul every few months.

It reminds us that life is cyclical. One season melds into another with its unique colors, designs and weather patterns.

Tree of Life 

Perhaps it was God’s mercy that forced the expulsion of mankind from the Garden of Eden on that fateful day.

What if Adam and Eve had eaten fruit from the knowledge tree and then grabbed fruit to chew on from the Tree of Life? Would that have doomed us to live in an imperfect and dangerous world forever?

I can’t imagine living in this fallen life forever.

Not when God has provided true life in a beautiful place. Like He planned from the first.  

At The End …

It all started in a garden. It all ends in another garden.

The Tree of Life is the only tree at the end. It’s the only one we need.

 

 

 

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2).