roots

“Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil….The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”…the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17, 3:6)

In the beginning, God – He was. Always. And then, He, being a creative God, created the earth and all that is in it: plants, animals, water, minerals, everything. But, the most important to us is man. He made a man in His own image. Man was to keep the earth for God, to be God’s friend, and to give God the praise that He deserves. In the infancy of creation, God told His greatest creation that he was not to eat the fruit of a specific tree. He could eat anything else, do anything else… After that, God created him a helper, woman, because He saw that it was not good for man to be without a helper. Woman was also made in God’s image to be God’s friend and praise Him the way He deserves.

However, together they defied God – they disobeyed the most powerful entity ever to exist – and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And in that moment, God’s perfect creation became corrupt and broken and were no longer capable of having that friendship with God the way that they were created to have because God is perfect and just – He cannot stand that corruption, which as been passed down from that first man to every single person ever born on the planet. He had every right to kill us humans right then and there, but He didn’t because He wanted to give us the chance to come back to Him – because He loves us. But He knew that we would never be able to get back to Him without His help, so He sent His own Son… a part of Himself to come and save us.

Because we screwed up, we deserved death so God’s Son, Jesus, took that death for us. Jesus was perfect because He never sinned or disobeyed God. He was not corrupted because He was born to a woman who had never had sex, so that inherit evil that is passed down from the first man didn’t get to Him, unlike the rest of us. When He died, giving up His sinless life for us, it balanced everything out for us with God. The only deal is that we have to accept that He did that for us and give up our sinful ways.

Not everyone accepts Christ’s love for us and the freedom He offers – so because of that and our sinfulness and evil natures, though, the very earth has become broken and corrupt. The peoples of the earth war against each other, hate each other… there is famine and drought, sickness and suffering. But God has already told us what is going to happen at the end of time as we know it. There is going to be a great big battle and everyone who has rejected Christ or simply not made a decision to obey Him will die. And God will destroy Satan. But, for those who believe… there will be unity and peace. Joy and life everlasting.

“On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:2)

So, it starts with a tree and ends with a tree. And we are in the middle with time, though quickly disappearing, to decide to thank God for the love He showed by giving us life again and love Him back.