I\u2019m not a gardener.\u00a0 I like a good garden (which might take any number of forms \u2013 a formal garden with sculpted shrubs, a natural-looking haven for wildlife, or even a simple expanse of lawn where children can run and play), and I even like being out in the sunshine with secateurs, shears, spade or trowel.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not a gardener.\u00a0 Other things tend to draw my attention first (e.g. making music).<\/p>\n
Recently I was introduced to something that surprised me, though proper gardeners will almost certainly be familiar with this kind of thing; an orange tree which fruits at the same time as blossoming.\u00a0 It was a beautiful sight to behold.\u00a0 First of all the deep, but slightly varied shades of green in the leaves formed the perfect foil for the vibrant orange fruits just developing in the sunshine.\u00a0 Then there were the smaller fruits, still green in colour, dotted around the plant.\u00a0 And finally, the blossom still everywhere present; flowers producing a sweet and gentle fragrance which permeated the whole conservatory and which would, in turn, develop into fruit themselves as the petals faded and fell. \u00a0Fruit and blossom present on the tree at the same time; I\u2019d never heard of such a thing.\u00a0 (Told you I\u2019m not a gardener!)<\/p>\n
The very fact that I\u2019m writing about it probably gives you an indication of how much of a surprise it was to me; though I have to confess I am one who likes to share good news and positive experiences when I come across them.\u00a0 Fruit and blossom all at once; this did seem to me to be a very good thing \u2013 a tree which produces fruit for a long season rather than all at once.<\/p>\n
And so it reminded me of heaven.\u00a0 The Bible uses a variety of images in its description of heaven, all of them entirely positive and attractive.\u00a0 One of them is the presence of the Tree of Life. We first encounter the Tree of Life in the opening chapters of the Bible; it stands at the centre of the Garden of Eden (literally the \u201cGarden of Delight\u201d) where God placed Adam.\u00a0 After Adam\u2019s decision to reject God\u2019s rule and try to run things his own way, God banishes him from Eden to prevent him eating from the Tree of Life and living forever.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s rebellion brings the consequence of death.<\/p>\n
The Bible explains that Adam\u2019s experience is also ours \u2013 like him, we live in exile from the perfection of Eden, cut off from eternal life in God\u2019s loving presence by our own sin.\u00a0 But there is hope.\u00a0 We discover that the Tree of Life still thrives.\u00a0 The book of Revelation paints a picture of heaven in which the Tree of Life stands somehow on both banks of the river of the crystal clear water of life which flows from the very throne of God.\u00a0 We read that the tree has twelve kinds of fruit and yields its fruit each month.\u00a0 Each month!\u00a0 Not once a year, but continually!\u00a0 Even more than the orange tree I was shown, here is an image of abundance which resonates so well with the other things the Bible teaches us about the character of God; in His presence there is abundant life.\u00a0 So how do we lay hold of this for ourselves?\u00a0 It\u2019s all about Jesus, who described His own life\u2019s purpose by saying, \u201cI have come that they might have life; life in all its fullness.\u201d (John 10:10)\u00a0 Will we come to Him?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m not a gardener.\u00a0 I like a good garden (which might take any number of forms \u2013 a formal garden with sculpted shrubs, a natural-looking haven for wildlife, or even a simple expanse of lawn where children can run and play), and I even like being out in the sunshine with secateurs, shears, spade or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[46,19,45],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creation","tag-heaven","tag-jesus","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hwwchurch.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}