In Genesis 3 we see Adam and Eve fall, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is sometimes called a Tree of Testing. It was a test, but what was the lesson? And how were Adam and Eve to know the right answer?

Well, it occurred to me today that God had given the lesson. In Genesis 2, He brings the animals in front of Adam. Allows Adam to observe their nature and give them names appropriate for them. This is a part of taking dominion over them, and a part of learning to “shamar” or, watch over them.

But it is also to answer the question, “What am I?” At the conclusion of this lesson, Adam knows, “I am not an animal.”  His helper and partner can not come from any of them.

So, in response to this lesson, Adam is divided into two, and the parts are brought back together, “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.” The two are made one flesh.

But did the knowledge transfer? Do both halves understand their nature and their identity? No, Eve listens to the voice of an animal, and follows a lower form of wisdom, not the Wisdom of heaven in Who’s image they were made.

I hear in our culture many people use examples from nature to excuse behaviors they find desirable, but we are not animals. Animals were never meant to be our inspiration, but rather we were meant to be theirs!

Yet, God made the world. His Thumbprint is everywhere. “The heaven’s declare His majesty. The Earth pours forth speech!”  There are patterns in Nature that give us wisdom.

For instance, Trees. Trees reach up standing taller and taller, craving more and more light. They take the light energy that the sun gives and bind it to carbon, making food for all the animals and people. That food is their own leaves, fruit, bark and branches. It is their body. Yet they do not resist evil when it consumes them, but rather persevere in obedience to that mandate within them, to grow and reach for the light, convert light into carbohydrate, even though another will again covet what they make.

Christ is the Light of the World. Light has come into the world, bound itself to flesh, and made The Word. The Word is our meat and bread. He feeds our soul with Himself, His own body, and does not resist any who would come and eat.

Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it gives itself away, it springs up to abundant life.

When we eat earthly food, our bodies absorb the nutrients, use the energy, and build animal cells with it.

But the Miracle of Christ is that when you eat This Food, its energy and nutrients consume your body, your mind, your time, and little by little you become spirit, filled with Wisdom of Heaven, you become a branch of Tree of Life!

This consuming is not the death of one for the life of the other. The tearing down of one thing to remake it in the form of another.

It is the being consumed by the One we “eat.” It is a cycle or pattern that begins with One giving Himself so that another can eat and not die, but in receiving that gift, they are consumed by the Power of Life, and Life is multiplied. Then as we who have tasted Christ, begin to change and conform into Tree of Life, our lives become a gift that sows Life in others, who then come to Him and Eat, change, and then effect change in others.

An so it goes on and on, always returning to Christ, drawing life from His body, binding it to our time, our works and lives, and seeing Him spring up again and again.

Enemies come. Jealous of the Light our lives bring, the joy our giving of self brings. They lie, steal and destroy. They use our gifts for their own ends, but it doesn’t matter, because we are Tree of Life. We just keep drawing Light of Heaven in, binding it to minerals of this world in our everyday comings and goings, and it keeps us growing and being a gift of Life to others.