THINK TOGETHER.
What is your favorite fruit from a tree? Apple? Orange? Pear? Banana?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 3:18. [Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.
Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible? God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. In the center of the garden there were two trees: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. Which of those two trees sounds like it would make a person wise?
It probably sounds like the Tree of Knowledge would make someone wise, but like Solomon says in today’s proverb, wisdom is in the Tree of Life, not the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge they would die. Why? Because to choose to know good and evil on their own, apart from God, was a rejection of God and his grace.
But the Tree of Life offered a life of trusting God. Fearing God. Receiving God’s grace. And that’s why the Tree of Life IS wisdom, and wisdom is a tree of life.
Now here’s the thing about trees, they don’t move do they? The Tree of Life doesn’t come to you, you have to go to it, lay hold to it, and eat its fruit. Wisdom is the same way. You have to keep going back to wisdom and keep eating its fruit. But the good news is that God’s wisdom isn’t actually a tree is it? It’s a person named Jesus. He is God’s wisdom that came to us.
When we trust in Jesus as our savior he comes and lives in our hearts. He plants the Tree of Life in our heart so that we can know deep inside that God loves us and that we can trust him. Now we can eat that fruit of wisdom all day every day. We can always hold on to God’s wisdom because Jesus is holding on to us.
Because of Jesus God’s wisdom and life can live in our hearts.
With Jesus we can always be wise.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Look at one of the trees at your house together. What does that tree give to you (oxygen, shade, climbing, a swing)? What does Jesus give to us?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you are my tree of life. Thank you for grabbing hold of me first so that I can grab hold of you. Amen.
TLICfamily 