That tree, you know the one

Post author By dw
Post date July 29, 2019
3 Comments on That tree, you know the one

This is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — disgust with the things we have misused and hatred of ourselves for misusing them.

— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sentences on Hope

That tree, you know the one,
where Eve got sucker punched
and Adam melted away,
didn’t even stand up for her,
distracted, maybe, by the spectre
of knowing her nakedness
apart from her soul,
thus beginning the dehumanizing
of one image of God by another,
the desecration of created things,
the discounting of God who made them;

That tree, you know the one,
that bides its time
while we distract ourselves
knowing the distraction will quiet
and we will one day stare and swallow
at the noose our own demand
to experience something other than God’s provision,
the difference between Good and Evil,
has tied for us –
we the condemner and the condemned;

That tree, you know the one,
where our discounted God
hung on our behalf
to show us pure Good,
to cut us free.

Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash

Tags condemned, cross, freedom, God, hanging, Jesus, No Man is an Island, Thomas Merton, tree of the knowledge of good and evil

3 replies on “That tree, you know the one”

This is brilliant DW. I love it. The imagery. It’s poignant and true. By wanting what God has, what we are not capable of possessing, our hubris, our lust, we sacrificed our intimacy with Him and forced him, because he loves us and pities us, to the cross.
God’s blessings
Pam

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Thank you, Pam. Sometimes I wonder if I’m off in some other universe, but your responses confirm that at least I’m not alone in that other universe 🙂. Grace and peace to you…

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I know, DW. I feel the same way about you. You and I, imperfect Christians; as are all Christians. And all Christians know that–at least theoretically. You and I know it literally.
We all owe a debt. My debt maybe a hundred million dollars. Yours maybe a mere fifty million. The deal is–neither one of us can repay it. We are all in the same boat. It’s just that you and I aren’t surprised by that, or who else we see in that boat. Some Christians are astonished to find themselves in a boat at all.

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