What in the world do I mean
that we are
“living between the trees”?
Eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil lost everyone access to the Tree of Life. Our life is a journey to regain what was lost- through Jesus- we will once again eat from the Tree of Life.
WHY??????
Why does there have to be loss and suffering?
Why are we afflicted with pain and disability, in this life?
Why can’t things go “right”?
Why are some people born with such all encompassing limitations and special needs?
Why isn’t life fair?
There are no easy answers but if you believe the Bible is God’s authentic Word, God reveals an all encompassing answer:
We are living between TWO TREES…
I believe the Bible is the authentic, inspired, living Word of God.
The Garden of Eden contained many delights but I think two of the most intriguing things mentioned were:
1. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
and
2. The Tree of Life
Most know the story-but it is much more than a story. It is not a fairytale or fable but it is God’s revelation of history to us. Without this revelation, we would wonder why we are in this sorry mess we called life. Its random accidents and miseries make absolutely no sense. But in context of history, as revealed by God, we begin to see the “Big Picture.”
Eve, then Adam, disobeyed God. They ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and death entered an otherwise perfect world. From that millisecond on, their DNA began to degenerate. From that point on, nothing could be as fully alive as it was once created to be.
The Law of Entropy became the norm: everything started going from order- to disorder,
from beautiful perfection, to a shadow of original perfection and beauty, from innocence to
corruption, from fully alive to decaying with time, from a “Masterpiece” to ruined canvas,
from complete to broken, from filled to languishing, from image of God to shadow of
former glory.
Aren’t you glad that God, in His great mercy, guarded the Tree of Life and banished Adam and Eve so that they would not partake of its fruit? What if they had? Their sinful, fallen, decaying, unregenerate state would have become their eternal state- our eternal state!
Instead- God planned, from the beginning,
to
REDEEM, RESTORE, and RE-ESTABLISH
His creation’s glory.
The Tree of Life is in our ancestral past and
BUT
The Tree of Life is still in our forever future.
If we don’t understand the beginning, we can’t survive the living between the trees.
If we haven’t read the promise of the ending, we can’t survive living between the trees.
It even gets better than that!!!! He doesn’t tell us what we lost and what we might gain. He doesn’t point us in the direction and say,” Have a good life- see you at the finish line.” No!! He promises to live with us between the trees!
The Bible tells us, when we turn our lives back to our Creator, admit that we are broken and damaged, & embrace Jesus as His Son – the “Savior” and “Redeemer” of our souls- then He will make us His own, seal us with His blood and keep us to that day. No one shall be able to pluck us out of His hand.
He will live with us between the trees.
He will take us through this life: He will help us with every problem, all of our suffering, disability, limitation, brokenness, illness, trial, challenge, pain, and death. He will hold us, sustain us, protect us, transform us, and finally glorify us.
He will take us through this life of WHY’S and carry us safely home!
We will get a new body, a new heart, a new mind, a new soul- transformed by the resurrection power of the Great I Am!
If we could just grasp- understand- perceive-truly see with an eternal perspective,
much of our pain would be comforted… many of our questions satisfied.
