Back to the Garden

In Pennsylvania, trees are season meters now dressed in equinox finery, until the parchment leaves fall noble to the ground, only to stand naked in winter. The choreography of the universe provided by the Creator reminds us of His promise to keep the earth constant  from season to season.

The Promise-Keeper.

From the view of our morning room window I can see the course of history . . . in a tree.

The tree outside our window bends at the weight of a sparrow, yet one of it’s forefathers held the weight of our sin on Calvary’s tree.

The ancient symbol of the fall and redemption.

The Bible starts and ends with a story of a tree, in the second chapter of the beginning of the Book and in the second chapter of it’s glorious end.

The Tree of Life.

Genesis 2:9,  In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life and also the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil.

Revelation 2:7,  To those who win the victory I will give the right to eat the fruit from the tree of life, which is in the garden of God.

Adam fell from grace when wife Eve was seduced by the slippery deceiver and dined at the Paradise tree.  It was then Satan defeated the human race.  On a tree, Jesus destroyed the works of the ex-angel, and we’re no longer defeated.

Bethlehem reopens Eden’s gate.

From this side of Eden and since the beginning of time, we’ve been trying to get back to the garden. We had life in the garden and lost it.  There is no back gate and we can’t pick the lock.

There is only a way in by the blood-tree sacrifice.  Jesus won it back for us in another garden . . .  Gethsemane . . . the agony before the agony.

Golgotha.

As we reflect on the passion of Easter, we have resurrection hope because of the tree of eternal life, the One who bought Paradise back for us 2000 years ago.

He Himself bore our sins in His body on a tree, that we might die to sin and live to be righteous.  By His wounds we are healed.  1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)