On page two of the Bible, God plants humanity in a garden, the garden of the lights, or

what we call the garden of Eden.

God also plants many trees there, trees that are good for food, trees that are good to

look at, and one beautiful cosmic tree in the center of the garden that represents God's

own life, the tree of life.

When God says to Adam and Eve, eat of any of these trees, except there's one tree

that they're forbidden to eat from.

It's called the tree of knowing good and evil.

Eat of that tree and you'll die.

And this has bugged me and a lot of people.

Why would God put in this good garden such an incredible test?

The reason that the tree is there in the garden, it's a powerful image of the nature of

all human experience.

Every good thing in my life is also matched by an equal or greater number of opportunities

to ruin it.

So these two trees are intertwined.

The tree of life and the tree of knowing good and bad, how you relate to one determines

how you relate to the other.

And God doesn't put the tree in some obscure place that's hard to find.

He puts it right in the middle of the garden right next to the tree of life.

To experience and eat from the tree of life, you have to walk by the tree of knowing good

and bad and not take from it.

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