Tree Of Life

Reading:  Revelation 2

My Verse:  “He who has an ear,  let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (2:7).

So often when reading Your Word, Lord God, You give us little glimpses of the future, of the new world we will inhabit when we leave this earth.  One of these glimpses is the “tree of life.”  It is so intriguing!

This tree if first mentioned in Genesis 2:9, “And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight or to be desired – good for food; the tree of life also in the center of the garden . . .” Then Adam and Eve sinned and all changed.  God had to remove them from the paradise He created for them.  He also had to keep them from eating of the “tree of life.”  “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil, blessing and calamity; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever – therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.  So [God] drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep and guard the way to the tree of life”  (Genesis 3:22-24).

Then there is no more mention of this until Revelation.  The “tree of life” appears again!  Here in verse seven we are told, “to the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life.”  Then in chapter 22 verse two here is the “tree of life” in the new Jerusalem!  “Through the middle of the broad-way of the city; also, on either side of the river was the tree of life with its twelve varieties of fruit, yielding each month its fresh crop; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing and the restoration of the nations.”  Is that not amazing?  A tree bearing 12 varieties of fruit, fruit that give eternal life.  And it bears a new crop every month!  A tree whose leaves provide healing!

I recall the time when I first started hearing these stories - I was simply enthralled.  This is all so beautiful and fantastical!  It is like a beautiful, true fantasy – if such a thing could be.  It is so wonderful.

Revelation 22:14 goes on to say this.  “Blessed are those who cleanse their garments, that they may have the authority and right to [approach] the tree of life and to enter through the gates into the city.”  We will get to not only see this amazing tree but we will eat of it!

Lord God, how I look forward to all that You have for us! 

“Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name!”

Ditat Deus – God Enriches!