Carving Initials with Nancy and Randy Campbell

We are all children of the universe branching out, reaching tall, a human family here on earth,
​the Tree of Life, embracing all.

Carving Initials
“In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life.” (Genesis 2:9) When God created Eden it marked the beginning of humanity. God planted the Garden of Eden and it was a place of great beauty and pleasantness. God planted trees which He made to support and please human life. But He also planted two very special trees, trees that represented everlasting life and sin.

We have the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and we have the Tree of Life. This morning we will be focusing more on the latter, the Tree of Life. This tree looked like the others in the garden but it had certain goodness which the other trees did not possess. This was a life-giving tree, a life-sustaining tree. The connection between the soul and the body was maintained by this particular tree. As long as man nourished himself from this tree, the link between body and soul could not be broken.

Let’s take a moment to talk about the significance of trees. To a painter or poet, and probably some of us, there is nothing else in nature which is more intensely profound than a tree. Think about how graceful a tree is. Think about the silhouette of various trees. Think about its green colour in summer and the changing hues of gold, orange, yellow and red in the fall. Think about the branches, the twigs and the leaves.

A tree illustrates diversification in unity. It has colourful and fragrant blossoms and luscious fruit. A tree reflects human life: a tree is born, it grows, it breathes, sleeps, decays, dies and reproduces. It’s not much wonder that throughout history man has had a keen interest, even a fascination, for trees.

In many ancient cultures the tree held a divine sacredness. Groves, and even individual trees, were cherished and revered as favourite dwelling places of the gods and they were set aside as places of worship.

The earliest tree of life was stylized by the Assyrians in the second millennium BC and appears to have been adapted by Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist art.

The Greek Dryad is a tree nymph or spirit in Greek mythology. The Dryads watch over and care for the tree they are born with.

The British Druids were members of the Celtic people and are best remembered as religious leaders. Their knowledge was never written down, but rather passed down by rote. The Druids used both animal and human sacrifice and their rituals were carried out in Oak groves.

In Norse mythology, Igdrasil (Yggdrasil) is the tree of life and is an eternal green Ash tree. The branches stretch out over all the nine worlds of Norse mythology and extend up and above the heavens.

Now all of these are examples I have mentioned are pagan to our Christian beliefs. But we have our own Tree of Life which grew in the centre of the Garden of Eden. Eden’s Tree of Life is the source of everlasting life. That is the belief of Christians. The Tree of Life is mentioned four (4) times in the Book of Proverbs. Chapter 3, verse 18, “As a tree makes fruit, wisdom gives life to those who use it. Everyone who uses wisdom will be happy.” Then in Chapter 11, verse 30, “As a tree makes fruits, a good person gives life to others. The wise person shows others how to be wise.” The other two references in Proverbs can be found in Chapters 13 and 15.

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the Tree of Life, which is in the paradise of God.” This passage comes from Revelations 2:7. Other references in Revelations are found in Chapter 22, verses 2, 14 and 19.

These Biblical passages produce images of energy, health and abounding joy and happiness. But let’s not forget, there were two trees in the garden; the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God gave Adam and Eve a choice between the two trees. They represent a choice between obeying God’s command or following the lies offered by the devil.

God teaches us that the key to a good life is looking to Him for guidance and strength. He wants us to live according to His will. The life-giving tree represents God’s law. The Tree of Life is not dead. We alone are to blame if we are cut off from the tree because we chose the other tree.

Imagine yourself in the middle of the food court at the mall. You find yourself surrounded by all your favourite fast food restaurants. And now, like Adam, surrounded by such a wide variety, you have to choose what you want to eat. What would you choose? Adam is in the middle of the world’s most amazing garden. He has all the best food at his fingertips and can choose whatever he wants, whenever he wants. How cool would that be!

Then God gave Adam a rule for living in the garden. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you mustn’t eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because if you do, you will die.” So as long as Adam didn’t eat from that tree everything would be great.

Now this is where the problem starts. 

In the beginning of Chapter 3 in Genesis we are told about a snake. The snake, or serpent, sees Eve walking around the Garden one day and he stops to ask her a question. “Has God told you that you can eat the fruit from all the trees?” the silky voice whispered softly. Eve replied, “God has told us we can eat all the fruit except for what grows on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

So here is the dilemma. Did God REALLY say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? Satan wanted to see if Eve remembered God’s rules. When you were a little kid, did you ever want to look at the Christmas presents under the tree? Everyone told you no peeking, but then one day you Mom goes to the grocery store and you see the presents just sitting there. So you think to yourself, “Did Mom really say I couldn’t look at any of the presents? Just one little peek won’t hurt.”

Even though we might not be talking to a snake about eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we still have been tempted to disobey.

So what does Eve do? The snake is still tempting her and says “I hardly think such a lovely fruit would do you harm. God knows that if you eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you’ll become just like God, and will be able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong.”

​Eve looked at the fruit and thought how tasty it looked. She thought how wonderful it would be to be as wise and powerful as God. She believed the serpent’s lie and ate the fruit and also gave some to Adam, who was with her. She felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach and wondered what was wrong with her. Suddenly she realized she was feeling guilty. She had disobeyed God and knew she’d done something wrong. Both Adam and eve became unhappy and fearful of God.

God was sad that Adam and Eve had disobeyed Him. He told them they had to leave the Garden of Eden. God told them that because they had disobeyed Him nothing would come easily for them and that one day they would die.

This story tells us that as long as we have a relationship with God, as long as we are connected to God, we have access to Heaven. We know that when we die we will go to Heaven to be with God and live forever. The problem is, when we sin or do bad things, we break our connection to God. And if we don’t have a connection to, or a relationship with God when we die, we won’t have everlasting life.

God made us to be in a relationship with Him, and when we admit that we have sinned and ask for forgiveness, we fix our relationship with God and ensure that when we die we will have ever-lasting life. So just like Adam and Eve, we’ve all done wrong. But just like Adam and Eve, God is there to rescue us. All we need to do is ask.

Perhaps some of you are thinking that I’ve been giving the wrong meditation this morning, since the title is Carving Initials, but here comes the explanation.

When I was a kid, maybe about 10 or 11 years old, my grandfather gave me a pocket knife. I was a bit of a tomboy. I liked trucks, machinery and tools and I wanted to know how things worked. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to get that knife. Grampa taught me how to whittle and I’d spend hours trying to master the craft. I was proud of that knife and showed it off to all my friends.

I carried the knife everywhere I went. And then one day I spotted a big old tree down in the brick yard and decided to carve my initials in the trunk. I began to scrape away the bark and to cut deeply into the tree. My fingers got pretty sore, but I kept on until the task was completed. Those 3 initials, NLC, stayed in that tree as long as the tree lived, but when it died and toppled over into the gully, my initials toppled with it.

That old tree reminds me of the Tree of Life. God wants us to carve our initials in the Tree of Life. He has given us our lives, as bright and new and keen as that pocket knife of mine. He wants us to take our lives and carve our names on that Tree of Life. And because that tree lives forever, we, too, will live forever if we put our names there. Let’s not spend all strength in cutting our names in the trees of wealth, business and fame. Let’s use some of our energy in carving our names deeply on God’s Tree of Life, because when we do, our names will be there forever.

​In the final chapter of the Bible it says, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may enter through the gates into the city. (Revelations 22:14). Will you make the same old mistakes our ancestors have made down through the centuries and choose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or will you search out the Tree of Life and have eternal life?

Let’s pray a Celtic prayer called the Tree of Life. Let us pray. O, King of the Tree of Life, the blossoms on the branches are our people, the singing birds are Your angels, and the whispering breeze is Your Spirit. O, King of the Tree of Life, may the blossoms bring forth the sweetest fruit, may the birds sing out the highest praise, and may Your Spirit cover all with his gentle breath. Amen