(Special thanks to Ty Rhymes for this week’s thought)
Imagine standing in the Garden of Eden and looking around. Trees are literally everywhere. They are covered in fruit. It is beautiful. Everything you need to live is right in front of you. God was so good to give it. Yes, you can have that tree. Yes, you can have that one too. And that one over there. Sure, even that one.
God gave Adam work with a purpose (Gen. 2:15). Yes. He gave him a beautiful place to live (Gen. 2:8-9). Yes. He gave him food in abundance (Gen. 1:29, 2:16). Yes. He gave him His presence (Gen. 3:8). Yes. And when God saw that it wasn’t good for him to be alone, He gave him Eve (2:18, 21-23). Another yes. It was a garden literally overflowing with the goodness of God.
And somewhere in the middle of all of those “yeses” was one “no.” One tree. One restriction. One thing God said, “Trust Me. You don’t need that.” Somehow, that one “no” became the only thing that mattered.
Maybe there is a “tree” in your life right now. There is something you want really bad. There is something someone else has. There is something God has said “no” to. There is something that just hasn’t happened yet. And maybe you have stared at it for so long that it has become impossible to see anything else. Look around. There is a whole garden around you. God has been better to you than you realize. His goodness is bigger than the thing you don’t have. His generosity is bigger than the boundary you don’t understand. And His “no” does not erase all of His “yeses.”
-SW