Trees and Us
Isaiah 3:10-11
“Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.”
Throughout the Bible, God speaks of a tree to symbolize our true selves—our will and affections—and He speaks of fruit to symbolize the production of that will—our actions and their consequences. Christ says in Matthew 7 that “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit”; and Paul contrasts in Galatians 5 the fruits of evil—“sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissentions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these”—with the fruits of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” So no wonder God’s gospel is so bountiful! Like fruit from the Tree of Life—from God’s very heart—it continues to bud, ripen, and transform barren souls into a heavenly garden once more.
I wonder, friend: what’s budding in your heart right now as you read this? Your affections and ambitions will become actions before long; so what kind of harvest will they bring?