The Tree of Revelation
The tree of life was once a tree of death. Our minds, bodies, and souls should have died when we ate that fruit which we were not allowed. It brought shame and judgment into our world. We hid because we judged our nakedness(Genesis 3:7). We took and ate the fruit before it was ripe and lost the sweet juice of its profound mystery. Eating of that fruit meant that we lacked trust in God. We wanted more when God gave us enough. We wanted knowledge when God gave us Love. We wanted His gift of judgment to know good and evil when we had love.
We destroyed ourselves at that tree when we were able to judge ourselves and others. That resulted in hiding and running away. Many of us are still running. From our shadows and others because the truth is revealed. We are broken and alone. The only way to undo our broken creation is to return to the tree. God sent his only Son back to hang on the tree and become the tree itself. He wanted us to love him and know him through his passion. In learning his love, we will know how to love each other. True love is finally restored.
There is no other way to be saved. It must be revealed and shame put on display because of our sins. It must be done that way! In broad daylight, not in the darkness of night where it can be hushed. When we want to hide, He reveals. He needed to be put to shame so we don’t have to be ashamed. He needed to die so we can live.
Jesus is still teaching us the same lesson. I Am to be the judge of good and evil. You should focus on love. Love me with all your heart, and with all your soul and will all your mind (Matthew 22:37). He is the tree of life, and we are all invited to come to the tree to take and eat his flesh and drink his blood. We remain in him and he in us(John 6:56). The fruit of the tree of life is now ripe and juicy, given and allowed. We are all invited to eat and to live and to love. To know love, love him, and love our brothers and sisters in him.
How many of us come to the tree now and eat the fruit of judgment instead of the fruit of love? Love can not exist in the same space as judgment. Only He that created us all has that power to judge His creation. Our little childlike hearts can only hold one thing at a time. Should we choose the fruit of love, then we must abandon all that is not love. Love can only exist in the present to be eternal. Love that worries about tomorrow would turn to anxiety and love extinguished because fear seeped in. Love that looked into the past with regret is not loved either. It is judging itself based on an ideal standard that is not of God but its own making.
Being childlike is to neither know the past or the future but only to focus on the present to play and love like how children play. My childishness ended when I realized that my friend was wealthy and I was poor. I know the knowledge of judgment. It extinguished in me the innocence of love. “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:2-4. I came back to this space of love again when I surrendered to God’s love and left judgment to Him. My sole purpose is to keep my heart tender and full of his mercy. That would mean to be forgetful. To forget all offenses and sin done unto me of my sin into others and accept forgiveness.
Love does not equate happiness and the end of all sorrow. As long as we live in this state where God’s kingdom is not an all-encompassing reality, we will still experience sadness and grief because those emotions stem from love loss. In this space of lost love, we can invite God into it and fill us up with His love. We can come to the tree of life to eat and drink and be filled. That’s why in our Anglican tradition, we come to the cross every week to eat, drink and be filled. We cannot eat once and be completely fulfilled until the end. We are children that are forgetful therefore, we must surrender and embrace our childhood in Christ. Come to the tree eat the fruit of love instead of judgment. Come and behold your beloved to whom they hung on that tree so you can be saved.
I’d like to tie this reflection to a song from one of my favorite novel series The Hunger Games called The Hanging Tree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i49fLHn0WCY
Image: Claude Monet, Springtime, 1886.