Written by:
5/11/2011 1:18 PM 

Eight trees adorn the side yard of the house.  They are fruit trees; recently planted in the earth.  They will produce and bear fruit for years to come.  Ryan, my brother in law, planted them a couple of weeks ago.  He did it several days before his heart stopped beating.  Ryan died of a sudden heart attack at the too-young age of 27.

            His fruit trees and passion for landscaping has had me thinking about trees and gardening a lot.  His death and Christ’s promise of life has had me thinking about our Gardner and the fruit born on a couple of particular trees.

            Genesis 2:5-7 is clear.  There was no Garden of Eden prior to Adam being formed in the dirt.  After breath flowed through his lungs is when the planting and tilling took place.  This is important.  It points to our role as partners in the gardening process.

            Sadly, the fruit that we too often bear is not of the Spirit—but of the flesh.  Isn’t this the lesson of Eden?  In disobedience, betrayal, and lying—our forefather and mother harvested a truly deadly fruit.  A fruit that, sadly, my dear brother recently tasted.  A fruit that none of us will be able to resist.  Talk about some rotten fruit.

            Thanks be to God that He was not yet done toiling in the Garden.  In the tree of Adam we taste the most bitter of all fruits.  By the tree of Christ, on a hill called Golgotha, we set our hands, our lips, our very lives upon the delicious goodness of a fruit that will not spoil.  A fruit that can not rot; a fruit that prevents us from rotting and preserves us from spoil.  Upon the Cross of Christ, our Father in heaven has harvested a holy and eternal fruit.  By its delicious victory the bitterness of Adam’s fruit is obliterated and expunged from our memory.  By Christ’s fruit, we receive the gift of life everlasting.  For this is the Lord’s promise, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” Revelation 21:4

            Not that no more tears will be cried.  The Lord knows we are shedding tears.  Oh, how I have cried these last days.  His promise is to wipe these tears away.  And then, as we play in the Lord’s garden, we will enjoy this heavenly fruit and our tears will spring forth no more!

            I can’t wait to fully taste the fruit of Christ.  I can’t wait.  But…as I do, you better believe that I will be enjoying the fruit that my brother Ryan gifted us with along the side of the house.  Thanks Ryan!

Copyright ©2011 Pastor Scott

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