Have you ever sat by a peaceful river, looked on at a tree planted nearby, blooming with

flowers and thought, you know, that tree is a great image for what human flourishing

looks like?

Well, if you haven't done that creative exercise, the biblical authors have.

In fact, the author of Psalm 1 imagines the abundant life and says, that person is like

a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit and season and whose alief

does not wither, whatever they do prospers.

In fact, this metaphor that humans are trees, it doesn't just pop up here and there in

the Bible, it's actually a unifying theme throughout the entire story.

Trees, they have a significant animated role in the biblical story.

They are not passive.

Trees play an active role.

In the first creation account in Genesis, God creates trees and tells them to be fruitful.

And then later, he creates humans and tells them also to be fruitful.

This is all on purpose.

This is all intentional and I meant to connect all of these stories as a unified developing

theme.

And it's strategically at the key hinge points of the whole biblical story, lo and behold,

there's almost always a tree somewhere in the mix.

I'm John and this is the Bible Project Podcast and in today's episode, Tim and I begin a

new series discussing all the wonderful imagery of trees throughout the Bible, the tree of

knowing good and bad, the tree of life, the burning bush, the cross.

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