the vine of life

Have you ever wondered why we are not given a description of what the Tree of Life looked like in the garden? If we were to guess what it might have looked like (and we didn't already know the description of the Tree of Knowledge), don't you think we'd come up with a description very much like the one given for the Tree of Knowlege of Good and Evil?

. . . the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom." (Gen. 3:6)

But Scripture gives us no clues concerning what the Tree of Life was like; at least not until messianic prophecies began popping up. Look, for example, at this description given by Isaiah:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with grief.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised and we esteemed him not." (Isaiah 53:2-3)

When Jesus walked the earth he clearly and straightforwardly identified himself as "the way, the truth and the life". When he called himself "the vine", he was essentially identifying himself as the Tree of Life. In Hebrew the word for "tree" is identical to the word for "vine". It simply meant any perennial, woody-stemmed plant. So the Tree of Life in Genesis 3 could very easily have been a vine, or a bush - not the typical tree that our English language connotes. How's that for shattering a neat little paradigm or mental image we've always carried with us! The Tree of Knowledge was obviously an "eye-catcher", beautiful to look at, having all the properties a human could want. The Tree of Life could well have been a humble, unnattractive bush, or a vine, easily concealed by the other trees and bushes it entertwined itself with.

Or, it could have been a mulberry tree. Becky's favorite fruit is the mulberry. But I have yet to see mulberries sold in grocery stores or farmer's markets. The reason is because they're not only difficult to pick, they easily get damaged in the picking and I would imagine don't keep well. Add to that the fact that flying and crawling insects also love mulberries! When Becky and I go out to pick mulberries (that grow wild on the family farm) we have to protect ourselves from mosquitos which tend to swarm around these trees - especially the ones closest to wooded areas.
But the nuisance doesn't stop there. When you get home and wash them, you have to pick out the little twigs and bugs that have inevitably fallen in and mixed with the berries. What a pain! Who would be so nuts to go through such an ordeal just for a handful or two of berries? Those who love mulberries!

Jesus (Yeshua) - the "vine/tree of life" - loved us so much that he allowed all sorts of undesirables gather about him. So much so that it kept away the overly religious folk who didn't want to be contaminated by such a crowd. Who knows what infectious disease one could pick up mingling with such low-lifes! Not unlike the risk of being bitten by a mosquito carrying the Nile virus, or a tick spreading lyme disease, while picking mulberries. But it's all designed as a test, a check to see what we really want in life, isn't it?

Where are our hearts at? Are we being distracted by outward appearance, or even by convenience? What is it that keeps us from recognizing the Tree of Life for what/Who it is? God is always and everywhere present, but we need the eyes to see Him and hearts that can receive Him. Lord, have mercy! Heal our blindness! Soften the hardness of our hearts! Help our desires to line up with yours!


Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)