To Eat Living Fruit

I was thinking about little Branson Bullard this morning
and how that sweet baby is being held and loved right
now in the ever lasting arms. The kindest, most gentle
arms to be held by. The very arms of life itself. At the
same time there are two precious parents with empty
arms and broken hearts. Today there is both joy and
grief in the fullest measure.
I doubt that there are any of us that aren't acquainted
with both the fullness of joy and the deepest of agony.
We have known the great hope of a new day as well as
the dread of having to face another one. We've had friends
and enemies, times of health and sickness, full prosperous
days and lean empty ones. The list can go on and on because
we exist in two realms - one of Life and one of Death.

In Deut. 28 God lays out the promised blessings for
obedience to His commands and the promised curses
for disobedience. Then, following in 30:15 He says, "See,
I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death
and adversity;" Then in verse 19 He says, "choose life in
order that you might live". I truly believe that God's whole
purpose for our existence on the earth, as we know it, was
and still is just that simple. We have been given an
experiential view of two realms between which we are to
make a choice and with that choice we receive an eternal
existence.

In the beginning Adam and Eve only existed in the realm
of life. When they decided not to believe God and eat the
fruit, they chose the realm of death. What a shock!! What
regret. God, being true to His word, cast them from His
garden of life. Yet, being faithful to His mercy, He was able
to offer them the choice of life through the promise of the
plan He already had in place for them.

We too can hold fast to God's promise; understanding that
for now the fruits of death are still with us. Let's continue
to choose the fruits of life as He has laid them out for us
and encourage each other; knowing that the promise is
eternal and though for now we only know in part, the time
is coming when we will proclaim like David, " I would
have despaired unless I had believed that I would see
the Lord In the land of the living."  Psalm 27:13.

The Father wants to present His Son with a bride that is
deliriously His alone. I think It is safe to say that in the
new Heaven and Earth He can place a tree of the
knowledge of good and evil on every corner and no one
will ever touch it!

beverlyn