The Tree of Life

I have been working at a Day Camp over the past few weeks and the director of the day camp leads a short devotional every morning. She had brought up something this past week that completely floored me. I would love to share her thoughts and also add some of my own. In Genensis we learn about how the universe was created and how man and woman were made and then placed in the Garden of Eden. They were told not to eat of two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. We all know how the story goes and eventually they ate from the tree of knowledge. They ate of this tree not as a way to go against God. They werent rebelling. If you remember Satan decieved Eve by telling her that she would become like God if she were to eat the tree. That is partially what happened, they now knew good and they knew evil but that was only partially what God is. He is also eternal. When God sent Adam and Eve from the garden. It wasnt a punishment as most of us think. It was for humanity's protection. That is not to say that it wasnt a direct consequence for their choice but it wasnt that God wanted them to be far away from them as possible, actually its quite the opposite, He wants to be as near to us. He sent us away from the garden because He knew that if we ate from both trees that we would not only know good and know evil but they would live eternally seperated from Him if they ate of the tree of life. SO to spare us from that fate he seperated us from the tree and had it guarded so we could not eat of it. So now we all know about good and evil and are born with the sin nature but God made a way for us to experience eternal life through our Savior, Jesus Christ. As mentioned in an earlier post, Jesus was the Word of God but in the flesh. The Word of the God brought forth the law and the condemnation for disobeying the law; which then showed us that we were incapable of fulfilling the law we needed a bridge to the gap - which was the Word in the flesh. The law was fulfilled and the debt was paid. Through one man sin entered the world and by God's grace through one man sin was redeemed (read Romans 5:12-15). What I find amazing about all of this is that God created the tree of life in the beginning Genesis 2:8 ) and it is also talked about in the last book as well. Revelations 22 and Revelations 2:7 talks about those who will be able to partake of the tree of life. Christ has renewed our standing with God and we have regained access to the tree of life so we can spend an eternity in His presence without any spot or stain.