God placed Adam and Eve in paradise and told them to knock themselves out. Enjoy creation, one another, and intimacy with God. Exercise dominion and express their creativity and passions. There was only one exception to this freedom to self-actualization: Don’t eat from one of the two central trees in the Garden.
God placed the Tree of Life next to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the center of the Garden and instructed them to feast on the Life Tree and abstain from the other Tree.
These two options continue to be our daily delima: choose to operate from the Tree of Life or choose to operate from the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Feasting on the tree of life is positive, redemptive, forgiving, gracious and empowering. When we face conflict, disappointment in others or ourselves, pain, etc, we can feast on the tree of life and find balm, calm, and hope.
Feasting on the tree of knowledge is to question and analyze intentions, fallen natures and motives. It is to place blame and judgement, even accurately, and major on negativity, correction, and penalty.
God pushed them from the Garden and placed an angel with a flaming sword so they could not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever. Instead, he placed us in the reality that we chose - knowing good and evil - and gave us our freely chosen destiny. But then, He entered into that destiny and purchased life for us with His own blood. This way we can now know good and evil, but overcome it with the life of Jesus flowing in hearts.
We live like monkeys, jumping from one tree to the other, based on how we are feeling at the time or how much of our depravity drives us in any given moment. But, choosing to live in that tree of life is the choice that gives life abundantly to us and those around us.
Feast today - not on knowing good and evil, but on having life in Jesus and on giving that gracious life away to others, empowering yourself and them to truly live!