TREE OF LIFE The tree of life (good and evil) that was planted in the middle of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2: 9) was not a physical tree. It’s a symbol of the limits that should never be crossed in life. God gave man and woman the freedom to do anything they liked but they were never to claim the right to decide what is good and evil because only God is capable of doing that. Man by nature is fallible and not able to choose properly and whenever he tries to do so will cause destruction upon himself. Unfortunately, man tries to break away. The snake (Gen 3:1) represents the temptation to break away from, to be independent and to do what we like. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as doing what we like because there are limits (tree of life) that must be observed. People who do not resist temptations or who yield in at will without effort are by that very fact claiming that they have the freedom to decide what is right or wrong for themselves irrespective of what society or the Church dictates. That’s call reckless living. Again it is one thing to be human and another to argue that one is not bound by moral rules or call it the Tree of Life. In the Christian tradition, we say that when we go astray as human beings, there comes a time we need to return. Jesus our master had a human side and was tempted as we read in Mark 4: 1-11, but he resisted the temptation. Look at him in the desert weary, vulnerable and struggling for footing, but He was not overwhelmed and that is a source encouragement for us. We human beings face the tree of life everyday but we should not be overwhelmed. We face the temptations to live with the notion that worldly pleasures, food and drink is all there is to purse in life. We are daily tempted to take God for granted and play into the devils hand by presuming that God will take care of us. We worship or conform ourselves to the political or religious establishments of our day without minding the harm we do to others in the process. These temptations are real but then we are reminded that God surely gives us enough grace to resist them, especially if we are consciously making an efforts to do so; for where sin has abounded, grace has abounded all the more (Romans. 5:15). Do you recognize your tree of life? Are you making any effort to resist the snake that stares at you in the desert of your life? Life goes on, but there are limits.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:40:30 +0000
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