…shalll heal the nations
So. I did it again. I got another tat. I had an inkling that it might happen in Thailand. Along with food and bowel movement patterns, tattoo ideas tends to top the list of things world racers talk about on a daily basis. But I had no idea it would be like this, that it would mean this much to me.
I will give you a shortened tour through the biblical journey that has led me to do something as insane as putting a tree on my foot.
Since Ireland, I have been wrestling with the concept of choosing the Spirit over choosing my flesh. Letting go of my independence, my need to control, my need to do what I want when I want- has been quite the journey. Almost on a daily basis I have been brought back to the fundamentals of the Spirit: of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control. I,on my own, am quite incapable of these. It is simply more natural to be selfish, to be pissy, to be assertive and abrasive. I am not good. I am indeed quite wretched. Go back and read my “Jelly in my toes” blog. When you live in community 24-7 this fact becomes quite evident.
The Galatians 5 page in my bible is nearly brown from the frequent touch of my finger oils.
So daily, hourly, sometimes each moment– I have to choose to submit to the Spirit, by Whom I am capable of such fruit. Only His Power is stronger than my Flesh.
God has also had me on a journey through the book of Genesis. Starting with Adam and Eve, to Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, to Jacob, Rachel, and Leah, to Joseph…so many stories. So many lessons. These people who lived Thousands of years ago have been radically changing my life, my view of myself, and my Kingdom perspective.
Galatians 4:22-26, Genesis 16
Hagar was a slave woman, who bore a son of the flesh, outside of the promises of God. A by product of someone ignoring the voice and promise of the Lord, and she bore children of flesh, or slavery, of bondage to sin and death. This represents the present Jerusalem- the broken, impoverished, messed up world we presently. The product of our flesh.
Sarah was a free woman, the wife of Abraham, who, even though she laughed at God and messed up big time, bore the son of promise, of spirit. She is the mother of Jerusalem above, the Kingdom of Promise to come.
Both of these women had actions that bore children-either of the flesh or of the spirit. I can do the same. I can believe the promises of God and give birth to life in the Spirit, or I can try to take matters into my own hands–and create children of flesh and slavery. Both choices will multiple into the world. They will either bring life or bring death.
Genesis 2: 8-9
“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East, and there He put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The Garden of Eden. Where the world was all as it should be. Except, even then, there was a choice. Eat from the tree of life, or eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
We know which tree Eve chose.
Even more so, we know the outcome of the choice. We see it everyday, swirling all around us every second. It’s in our DNA. It’s in poverty. In murder. In genocide. In babies born with heart defects. In mental illness. In cancer. In rape. In child soldiering. In selfishness. In mean words. In greed. In pride. In lustful thoughts. It’s in messed up families. It’s in all of our wretched pasts.
Eating from that tree bore brokenness into our world. It brought pain, fear, tears, and all the things we want to shake our fist at God for. We forget so easily though, that it’s what we chose. What we choose even today. That if you or I had been in the garden, in Eve’s barefoot skin, we would have chosen too. There’s no blame to be cast on her. Each one of us would have been allured by our curiousity to the tree of knowledge. We always want to know what is behind shiny, delicious looking doors.
Revelation 22: 1-5
(After Jesus has radically dieda and rose again to redeem above brokenness, after the New Jerusalem has come, after Kingdom has come to earth. )
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city, on either side of the river, the Tree of Life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
Here, in the very last chapter of the bible, in the Kingdom to come, that is coming now, there is again the Tree of Life. And it’s leaves heal the nations. Of their brokenness. Of their tears.
And so. Now there’s a tree on my foot. (In my head I say it like Woody from Toy Story “There’s a snake in my boot!” With a river of words flowing out from it: “…And the leaves of the tree shall heal the nations.”
I put it there to be a life long reminder to myself: Choose from the Tree of Life. Bear children of promise. Eat the good fruit. And Kingdom will come. Life and Peace and Healing will come to this wretched and messed up humanity.
