God Provided Two Trees

What does it mean that “the failure of mankind is not recognizing that what God has provided is all mankind needs?” This phrase suggests that humans often fail to appreciate the blessings and resources that God has already given them, instead seeking more and more without realizing that they already have enough.

We often hear the term “freewill”, that freewill is the ability of an individual to make choices that are not predetermined by any external factors, such as fate or divine intervention. Adam and Eve were created in a barren environment where no food or other living creature existed. And God gave them a walled garden with everything they needed for life, protected by the wall in total comfort. The lack of faith in the promise that God gave them – pleasing to all life’s needs – was not enough and the desire for self determination took this away and they were placed outside the wall and required to fend for themselves.

Imagine this:

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ^{Genesis 2:4-9 [NASB]}

We use freewill to justify our actions without the presence of God, because of the Two Trees. The one Tree – the Tree of Life – is Jesus Christ; the other tree is this world – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We can’t go back in time and change this history, but we can recognise that God is still with us in the gift of Jesus Christ: This is the freewill we need to exercise – to choose Jesus Christ as our constant companion; to stay so close to him that we have confidence in the decisions we make – confident that He is there with us, to guide us when our decisions are flawed.

Lord Jesus. Come into my life; come into me and stay in me. Help me to live my life in the image of you; guide me in my decisions. I cannot give back my knowledge of Good and Evil but today, I am choosing Good, with You. Amen.