The Truth About the Trees

The Trees have intrigued me for years.  It is as if they’ve held a secret – a puzzle to be worked out… a truth needing to be discovered.

I’ve lived my life condemning Eve for hanging out under the wrong Tree.  “She could have chosen the Tree of Life - but she didn’t!”  I’d shake my head over her failure, wishing she and Adam had made a different decision.  Wishing they’d walked away from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Wishing they’d chosen life over knowledge.

Life… over knowledge.

Hmmm…

And then I realized it. 

I’ve stood right there with them… longing to know! Needing to know!   Desperate to know!

The hunger leaves me unable to rest in the shade of what His LIFE offers me. 

No, no, no… I must know!   Unwilling to trust Him with the knowing that I crave – knowing the outcome, knowing the facts, knowing… knowing… knowing.

You see, His Bride still claims to know a lot of stuff.  She knows what’s right and she knows what’s wrong.  And, when it comes to this world, there’s not much right in her opinion.

So she perches herself up in the wrong tree, shouting out to humanity all that is good and all that is evil. 

And when the world refuses to listen, she shouts even louder – demanding they stop and listen.

Meanwhile, the serpent rejoices.  For once again he has pulled Eve away from the best gift – the gift that gives life… once again, he has lured her into his trap.  She remains distracted – convinced she must attain knowledge in order to gain peace.

Ahh.. but there is no peace to be found.  Not under the Tree of Knowledge anyway. 

You see, we will never find peace in the knowing… for there will always be something more to cross our path – something more to analyze, discuss, condemn… something more to shout out to the world about.

Tell me this – has our shouting over red cups, gender labels and politics made a difference?

It hasn’t – not for the good anyway.  Satan celebrates the ugliness of the Bride’s actions while Jesus calls to us from the place of Life. 

Does this mean bury our head in the sand?  Ask Him – He’ll tell you.

Maybe it means turning off the news (man’s perspective) and burying ourselves in His perspective.

Maybe it means ignoring the negativity of social media and being transformed by the hope found in His Word. (You have the right to unfollow the negativity – if it gets to you, don’t leave that door open to your mind.  Take control of what you allow your thoughts to feed on.)

Maybe it means denying ourselves of the appetites we find comfort in and developing an appetite for His Presence.  As long as you fill up on junk, you’ll never develop a hunger for that which is best.

And maybe it means dying to self and living in Him... because life – it can only come from Him.

Every seed that is planted from here to the farthest place from where you now stand – they all require the same touch from the Father’s hand in order to live.  Every seed – from humanity to vegetation – it all requires Him.

And it is love that brings life – and when we eat of it (which He invites us to do), His love dwells in us – and His love in us changes how we respond to the distractions coming from the Tree of Knowledge.

Eve’s knowledge of good and evil never produced the results she’d hoped for… nor has ours.  And, I admit, the idea of leaving the comfortable shade of knowing to discover what real living looks like is confusing.

Yet the deeper I find myself in the security of His life, I find that the offenses of this world have less and less ability to get to me.  Oh, they still do – but I’m learning that the more fruit I eat of the Tree of Life, the less I am tempted to run back to eat from the other.

Leaving the knowing, conflicts with so much of what the body of Christ has known and done.

But it is a gift – and it’s a gift I don’t want to miss out on.