When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate it.  – Genesis 3:6

I wonder if kids are as fascinated with trees today as I was.  I used to love to climb them.  I thought it was so cool to go as high in a tree as you could possibly go and just look at the world around me.  When riding in the car as a kid, I remember being amazed at how the trees close to the road seemed to zip by so fast while the trees far away moved so slowly.  I had completely forgotten about all that until my first airplane ride.  Everything moved slowly, yet I was going 400+ miles per hour.  Crazy.

According to the Word of God, a lot has happened at trees.  God told the first man, “The day you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die.”  It was the first conditional statement ever given.  We are in a fallen, sinful state because of one single action done by one single man.  The day he ate, death was brought to the human race.  You and I will draw our last breath one day.  On that day, we will stand before a holy God and be judged.  “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.”  (Hebrew 9:27) It almost doesn’t seem fair that everyone is born condemned because of the actions of one person.

Thank God something else happened at another tree.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.  – 1 Peter 2:24

Six hours one Friday afternoon.  That is how long Jesus was on the cross.  The Bible says it was from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.  It also says at noon it got really dark.  Jesus said these words, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”  It is the only time Jesus talks to the heavenly Father and refers to Him “God.”  Every other time, He calls Him “Abba,” or “Father.”  This was the moment that Jesus dreaded.  He did not dread the nails, the lashes, the crown of thorns, the mocking, the being spit upon, the being hated by His own people . . . He dreaded the separation from His Father.  Just like you and I, sin separates us from God.  Unlike you and I, Jesus had no sin.  The sin that separated him from his Father was yours and mine . . . not his own.

You see, just as all humans were filled up with sin the moment Adam ate, any human who prays to Christ can have their sin emptied on Him.  Sin can be transferred off of you and onto Him.  He really did give His life that you and I might live.  In three hours, He inhaled the sins of the world. All who would ever humble themselves and say, “Lord, I need you” would be made brand new and restored to that wonderful condition before the fruit was eaten from that first tree thousands of years ago.

You can’t do anything about what happened at the first tree.

But, you sure can do something about the second one.

Receive Him today.

He really is the best thing this life offers.

Later

Adam