Trees

     And after the once blind man received his sight, what happened next?  "And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking" (Mark 8:24). The blind man immediately saw what it took years for me to see; that men are as trees walking! When God told Adam to "dress and keep the Garden," He was surely referring to other "trees" (Gen 2:15).  Of course, there were no other human trees there, but the command to multiply would grow other trees (Gen 1:28).
     There was human potential in the Garden of Eden:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Ephes 1:3-4).

     Everyone existed in heavenly places before the foundation of the world. Some will say just the "elect" but God wants that none should perish. Thus, all mankind pre-existed, not in bodily form, but with a timeless soul. Creation was when Adam and Eve were fitted to their soul in the image of God: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen 1:26), and "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him" (Gen 1:27).
     The image was man with a mind, body, and soul. Because Adam was created without sin, he was imbued fully with the Holy Spirit. Only with original sin was Adam's soul vacated. Adam was re-created as God did a  re-genesis on him shortly after he was contrite. His original condition was restored but outside the Garden sin tainted him time and time again. However, Adam's spirit was willing although his flesh was weak, and God has his soul in safe-keeping until he is saved at the rapture of the living and the dead in Christ.
     Adam was born pure, but all others have been born in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). The human navel is our problem. We were all born with Adam's DNA but Adam was only created with God's! The navel which Buddha contemplated for so long, is mankind's problem, therein is not our solution.
     My point is that there were three types of trees in the Garden: The Tree of Life, representing the Godhead with the seen part representing Jesus Christ, the Tree of Knowledge representing Satan and his delusion of reason, and the other "trees" which would become the rest of us. Within the other "trees" were those who would live forever, and those which would be forever dying. The blind man saw those trees! I see them too. My desire is that none of those trees shall perish, and my vocation is the Great Commission - to keep those "trees" from dying.
    The Tree of Life had twelve fruits (Rev 22:2). The Tree of Knowledge had corresponding rotten fruits (Gal 5:19-21) and a few more to tantalize. Mankind, not totally corrupt, has some bad and some good fruits. (I don't believe in total depravity but mostly depraved because our one God-given attribute is the capacity in making a right decision regarding the gift of faith which God provides.) Our attitude is "as gods" (Gen 3:5).
     Mankind, not satisfied with being made in the image of God, create their own image. They, just as Satan did, assumed the role of a god (Isa 14:14). Satan is the pretender to God's throne, as are children of the Devil, and subsequently we too contend for God's throne. Neither Satan nor us will ever achieve godhood, but already act as if we are gods!
    How do gods act? To be a god, gods must have the ability to create. Mankind cannot create life, and will never truly be able to, but they can create images of false gods. Their best images are of themselves. Humans, before they are born again, perceive that they are gods. Gods must be appeased. Mankind is appeased by pleasure: lusts of the eyes and the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The receptor of pleasure is the flesh. Hence, the flesh is mankind's idol. Those who are born again are to relinquish their idol, by diminishing themselves as they elevate God (John 3:14). What can you do to be born again? Lift up God and keep your eyes on His Purpose. God came in the flesh to kill the Serpent for us. We are only to quit attempting to do that on our own, and let God handle the Serpent!
    Gods, then seek reverence, love, and magnification. Those attitudes are reserved for God. Sure, we want to be loved, but that comes from the real God who loves us so! However, god-posers love themselves. Sinful people who fail to lift up God lift up themselves.. Because we are as "trees" before we are re-originated, we are more like Christmas trees. People focus on themselves, all sparkling and lit up, and flashing our on lights toward the heavens.
     How do people do that? By self-centeredness. Look at how people decorate their trees: attitudes, behaviors, self-righteousness, licentiousness, and then the physical decorations: expensive clothing, high-priced jewelry, elaborate hair-dos, make-up, lipstick, tattoos, and piercings/ Why is it that God commands modesty in behavior and dress? Because we are as our own gods, and we dress and keep us while we fail to dress and keep the other "trees". In fact, people diminish the other "trees" with arrogant, prideful, self-centered attitudes. If the focus is on us, it is not on God. Esteem of self is mankind's problem; Christ-esteem is the solution!
    If it is in scripture, it's there for a reason. Us "trees" are to me plain cedars, not all spruced up! We are the "cedar" trees with which the temple is built. Those "trees" which will live forever is what the temple of God is built from. We are the cedars of Lebanon, the trees of the Temple: " The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted" (Psalm 104:16). God wanted cedars used to build His Temple for several reasons, but they were all to represent his living trees:  they are modest, beautiful to Him, hardy and long-lasting, and full of sap which preserves them from harm but at the same time they are quite inflammable. Why is that so important? Because the Church (Temple) is a place of judgment; some trees shall live forever, and others burn up!\
     Sinners are more like the fig tree which is "the world tree". Christians are more like the olive tree which is the tree of peace. In my earlier commentary, I acknowledged that the fig represents the forbidden tree, and the olive, the Tree of Life. We are to allow our cedars to bow to the Olive Tree. We are to sing to THE Tree: "Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth" (1 Chron 16:33).
    I have written enough for the reader to know that we are not "as gods" but "as trees". Holy Scripture is full of comparisons of people to trees. The thread behind all that symbolism is that we are to be meek, humble, and modest. It is the Tree of Life to whom we are to bow down!

Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. (Jer 10:1-5)

     Are those verses a condemnation of Christmas trees? Perhaps the early Assyrians or Babylonians had the same custom as nowadays, but I believe these passages refer to decoration of ourselves. God always sends multiple messages, always one practical but another one spiritual.