by Coach Debbie

This article is so important for you to read.  Bookmark it if you’re in a hurry.

 GENESIS

Remember the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?  You know, the place where they ate from the tree they weren’t supposed to, and then the earth fell under the Curse?  Let’s go there together, to Eden; specifically, to a different tree that was in the center of Paradise.  The Tree of Life.

In Genesis 2, we learn God planted a garden in a place called Eden and He planted all kinds of trees that were both visually appealing and for food.  I love that God is a gardener, by the way.  He made the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (that’s the one Adam and Eve chose to eat from, despite God telling them it was not to be eaten).  God gives us choices and with choices come consequences or rewards.  He was offering this innocent couple freedom to partake of all trees but one.  In Genesis 2 and 3, the pair eats the ‘pear’ (ha) and their immortality is swapped for death.  They chose consequences.  Just like our children defy us.  So in Genesis 3, God banishes them from Eden.  Which also closes access to the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life was in the center of this Paradise.  It represented eternal life with God.  Eternal.  With God.  This tree was God’s way of showing Adam and Eve that permanent relationship with Him was His plan and their joy.  But because they sinned by disobeying, they were no longer allowed to reach out and take from the Tree of Life and live forever.  They were kicked out of Paradise and, therefore, separated from this tree.  Separation from the tree meant no immortality because they chose sin.

In Randy Alcorn’s “Heaven,” it says, “Death, disease, and the deterioration of age are products of sin.  Because there was no death before the Fall, presumably Adam and Eve’s original bodies were either indestructible or self-repairing…”  Reread that sentence.   Alcorn goes on to say the Tree of Life was the source of ongoing physical life in a supernatural way.  So these 2 were designed to live forever!

REVELATION

Ready for me to drop some knowledge on you?  Are you excited?  That Tree of Life still exists.  The exact same tree.  Not a replica.  Not in a symbolic representation.  The same physical fruit-bearing tree.  

Where is this tree?  In Paradise.  Flipping from Genesis, the first book of the Bible, to Revelation, the final book of the Bible, is where our minds are blown.  Revelation 22 focuses on this Tree of Life as it describes the layout of Heaven.  “On each side of the river of the water of life stood the TREE OF LIFE, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month” (Rev 22:2-3) and its leaves are for the “healing of nations” and there is no longer any Curse!  Verse 14 says, “blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the TREE OF LIFE and may go through the gates into the city.” 

God, in all His wonder and majesty, can do anything.  And He did.  He blocked off Eden from humanity once it became Paradise LOST and has placed it into a land of Redemption and Restoration (those are just some of His specialties).  Because there is no sin or evil in Heaven, it is Paradise Regained.  It’s His plan coming full circle.  In Heaven, eternity with God is secure.  To get to Heaven, you must accept Jesus’ forgiveness that is freely given by the blood of Jesus as He died for our sins.  We are Eve:  “I just want to sin a teeny tiny bit.”  In Heaven, if you are a true believer in Christ and His love for you, you can eat from the Tree of Life (I’m so excited there is eating up there!)!  Once we are truly Home in the presence of God, access is restored and we are to eat freely.  We get to savor all the sweetness God has in store for us.  No longer weighed down by guilt, shame, envy, pride, failures, temptation, evil, fear, wickedness, deceit, ailments, divorce, pain.  Just blessed in eternity.

EXTRA CREDIT

For those of you with the time and the hunger (pun intended), here are a few more treasures I’ve discovered:

• Unlike the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil does NOT exist in Heaven.  Humanity already knows and Heaven has no place for evil.   And if we’ve died-and-gone-to-heaven, we are no longer in need of our faith being tested.
• Revelation 22:2 says, “on EACH side of the river of the water of life stood the tree of life…”  Picture that.  Each side of a river has one tree?  How can that be?  One theory is that it’s a “collective” tree and Paradise is full of treeS of life!
• The Old Testament book of Ezekiel prophesies, “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing” (Ezek 47:12.)  This, from a man who had never been to Heaven!
• Old Testament book Jeremiah 17:7-8 encourages, ““But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”  Sound familiar?  Sounds wonderful!
• Psalm 1:1-3 shares, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.  That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.“
   

Let’s use this information as a new reason to worship the Creator.  The Creator of life and all good things.  Let us wonder at what Heaven will be like!