So it took me a while to understand why God needed to separate sinful man from the tree of life. I mean, there's this tree that, as long as we eat fruit from it, we'll live, like forever. Then there's this man and woman who have found themselves cursed and in excruciating misery. They ate from the bad tree and now they're more than sick about the whole thing. My first though might have been, "Quick! Eat from the good tree! Surely it will fix everything!" Wrong! It's the Tree of Life not the Healing Tree. It wouldn't have made things better. It would only have made them last. Bad combination! Love was the reason God separated these two from the Tree of Life. He loved them too much to allow them to live never-ending lives in this miserable state. Instead they would be given an opportunity to have their wrongs righted, to redeem their purity and to once again live forever with him on the other side of the curses climax, death. The effects of sin and it's curse, the path back to God and ultimately God's overwhelming love for humanity haven't changed and, in fact, apply to every area of our lives today. Just the same way that God desired and planned a way to redeem the lives that Adam and Eve threw away that day in the garden, He sees our lives today, our careers, our finances, our kids and our marriages and his heart is moved. He loves us so much that the last thing He wants to do is stand aside and let us go on living with it all the way that it is. That would be the epitome of hopelessness. But he has a hope and a plan for our future and we can rest assured that it's good, perfect and better than we could possible dream! The truth is that without Him, like Adam and Eve, we would simply look to whatever would sustain things even if things are completely pathetic. But instead we must turn to Him and allow His spirit to permeate all of these areas of our lives, working redemption in them in ways only He can. Then we overcome the curse, defeat the things that are killing our hope and truly receive new and abundant life in Him!
