A Tree to Heal

Welcome to today's word of encouragement from your friends at Our Daily Bread.

Our devotional author for today is Tim Gustafson, and the reading is titled, A Tree to Heal. For $300,000, you can buy a new McLaren 720S sports car. The vehicle comes with a V8 engine pumping 710 horsepower, considerably more than you'll need for your morning commute.

Of course, you might be tempted to use all that power. One Virginia driver learned his McLaren was so fast, it could go from an upscale showroom to the scrap heap in just 24 hours. One day after buying the car, he slammed it into a tree. Now, thankfully, he survived. Just three chapters into the story of the Bible, we learn how a different bad choice and a tree marred God's good creation. Adam and Eve ate from the one tree they were to leave alone. The story had barely begun, and paradise was cursed. Another tree would play a role in undoing this curse, the cross Jesus endured on our behalf.

His death purchased our future with him. The story comes full circle in the Bible's last chapter. There, we read of the tree of life growing beside the river of the water of life. As John describes it, this tree will be for the healing of the nations, and he assures us, no longer will there be any curse. God's story comes with the happily ever after we all long for.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.

And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? Let's pray. Father, help us not forget the price it cost your son Jesus to undo the curse we set into motion way back in the Garden of Eden. Thank you for the promise of eternal life with you when we give our lives to you and ask for your forgiveness. May our lives display your goodness to others, and may they be drawn to you through us. It's in your gracious and merciful name that we pray. Amen.