The Garden

In the Garden of Eden, after God had created man and given him everything, there was a test. It was a test of trust, faith, and obedience. It came in the form of one rule, one exception to the everything. Do not eat from one tree, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Genesis 2:16-17.

See the thing is, I think I decided to play this game with God....God this is the garden of my life, and its yours. I trust you with everything.....ooooh except for this one tree. But in the grand scheme of things that's not so bad right? You can have all the other trees, and animals and what not, just leave that tree and the birds in it alone. I even built a fence around it so you would remember which tree is off limits.

So God and I have been playing that game for the past few years. But I've recently gotten the sense that neither of us are entirely satisfied with the arrangement. God and I decided to take a walk through the garden of my life and re-evaluate this tree situation.

God pointed out a few things to me. That tree that I was holding onto so close and personal actually wasn't doing so well. The birds were eating all the fruit, and it kind of had this barren look. Not a "its autumn and the leaves are falling off" kind of look. More of a "that thing might actually be dying" appearance. It was a little bit discouraging.

God told me "This tree needs a lot of work. Its not thriving, its barely alive. But its far from hopeless. I'm going to have to trim some branches, and get rid of those birds. But lets just take things slow and start by taking down the fence and letting me come closer. You may not understand what I'm doing, but I promise it will be more alive and more beautiful everyday you let me work on it."

Soooo I gave God the tree. I'm pretty happy with the decision.

I am released in this surrender
I am free in your captivity
Held not by chains, but by choice
This is peace I've never known

God is enough. "For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." 1 John 3:20