Time, Trees and Faith

Genesis 2:8,9,

Gardening is in my blood, I believe it goes back to my granddad and his dad, and his dad, they were men of the soil, that is how they supported their families, they grew things that others needed.  Since child-hood, I’ve enjoyed working the soil to produce vegetables and grow fruit trees; something in me gets excited when I see the seedlings breaking through the ground, or the first bloom setting on the fruit tree.  I’ve learned that if you look at the blooms or the seedlings too often, it seems like it will never produce the results that you are hoping for.

Often I’ve thought about Genesis 2:8,9, “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.  And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.  The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”  When I garden, it requires a starting place; first I spend time getting the land ready to receive seeds, or if I am planting a fruit tree, it has to have a start and that start normally comes from a nursery that grows fruit trees.  God did not begin with planting saplings, he began with trees, now you may be thinking, and big deal, but it is a very big deal!  I believe it is impossible to grasp creation without a clear understanding of time, time was designed for man, God created time for us, but time has no control on God.  God the manufacturer designed you and me to live in a three-dimensional world that requires time, but God also put into that design the ability for us three-dimensional time critters to believe what is not seen, God calls that faith.  Why do we need faith? “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

God, unlike man, began with trees that He spoke into being, how old were those trees?  By our time, some may have been a thousand years old, and that does not make sense to us. Why would God do such a thing?  His desire from the beginning was to establish you into a person of faith, and faith does not get its origin in what is seen, but is based on being sure of what is unseen.  Once you take this truth by faith, then rocks and mountains and the time man has placed on them, will not make you doubt the certainty of God as Creator.

Part of our design was to work, and God knew that in work we would benefit, physically and spiritually; God also wanted you and me to enjoy life on this earth, so He made things like trees to be pleasant to our sight and good for food.  God’s purpose has always been to give you the freedom to choose, to seek what is unseen, your Creator, and to be loved and return that love.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice