"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it."
I cannot vouch for its authenticity, but I read there are over twenty-three thousand different kinds of trees in the world. Among them, fruit trees numbering into the thousands; the apple tree alone is said to have some seventy-five hundred varieties. The Bible records the names of no fewer than twenty-seven of this vast number of fruit trees in the world. The possibility of a great number of trees being in the garden is far from being speculative.
1. Interestingly, our first parents centered all their attention on the one tree that was forbidden rather than all those they had free access to. You could say, "They couldn't see the forest for the 'tree.'" God has an affinity for trees, He chose to die on one (1 Peter 2:24).
2. Legion, I've found, is the number who major on the few things God has restricted while losing sight of all the wonderful things freely given them. Things for their good and not for their hurt, as those in the off-limits area would do. Bypassing our fleshly desire for that one thing we want shows our love to Him. And in partaking of the many good things He has provided us, shows His love to us!
3. Years ago, when my daughter, Charity, was five, I taught her a lesson on tithing. I divided one-hundred pennies into two groups of ninety and ten, then said "Chip, that is God's tithe, it belongs to Him, the rest is yours." Grabbing up the ten pennies, she replied, "O, Daddy, you mean the Lord will let me have all of this?" When I told her it was just the opposite, that the ninety was all hers, and the ten was God's, she said, "That's all He wants?" She was amazed!
And after all these many long years, so am I my friend.
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