Two Trees

They ate of the other tree-the tree of experiencing good and experiencing evil; in eating they knew, they lived the good and the evil and condemned us all to walk in their footsteps. They ate not of the Life Tree. They chose, they ate and our teeth are set on edge at the sour grape taste that lingers in all their children’s mouths. They chose death, not life. The tree made all the difference in the world; their path, long ages since, is our path; their consequence ours. Then Last Adam came, absorbing into Himself the toll of the path taken. His tree of death became our Tree of Life. Tasting death for all, He ate the fruit of the ultimate knowledge of good and of evil; He drained its cup to the last bitter drop. Eating that fruit, tasting its putrescent flesh, He transformed Adam‘s tree of evil into the Tree of Life for all of us. What happens to the new head of the race happens to all, just as in First Adam, all tasted death, in Last Adam, all will taste life. Two trees; two choices; opposite outcomes: death instead of life; life instead of death. Praise be to the Last Adam whose tree of death returned to humanity the tree of Life evermore! 01.21.13