Bible Stories for the Young
Green triangles are narrated and fully illustrated and will have simple animation added along the way. Yellow triangles have narration, but the illustrations aren't done yet. Videos with red triangles are planned. New and updated videos will be added very often.
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Eating From the Tree of Life Is Not Hyperspiritual and How To Eat From the Tree of Life
Do you remember when Jesus talked about The Rock of Obedience? And we talked about how your relationship with your parents is to be a little window that leads you into a relationship with God, our Heavenly Father. By learning how to respect and obey your parents, who you can see and hear easily, you are learning how to respect and obey God.
Do you want to hear about another way your relationship with your parents can be a window into a deeeeep relationship with God? (I know you do!)
Well, do you remember those two special trees in the Garden? Yes, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil. Which tree did God want them to eat from? Yep, the Tree of Life.
Let’s talk about what those two trees have to do with you.
We’ll start back at that thought about obeying your parents. You know you need to do it. God said so!
Babies and little children need some orders and rules and instructions, don’t they?
“No, no, baby, don’t put that in your mouth.” “No, no, baby, don’t touch that.” or… “Stop! Don’t run into the street!” or… “Don’t push your little brother.” “Eat your dinner.” “Clean your room.”
But let me ask you a question: As you grow older and older, do you think you need more and more rules to follow? Does the amount of right and wrong things to do or not do just pile up higher and higher and higher?
No, they shouldn’t. That’s the tree of knowing good and evil that God does NOT want us to eat from. “Do this. Don’t do that. Do that. Don’t do this.”
Nah. God offers us a way to live that is way more fun than that — and it’s eating from His Tree of Life. Do you want to hear more?
God’s Big Plan isn’t for us to obey a bunch of rules, is it? What is His Plan? Yes, for us to KNOW Him and be close, close, close to Him.
Stop right now and think about some things that make your parents happy… or sad. Not what you think they think is good or bad — but things you know make them smile… or frown. (You can pause the video and think about it, if you want.)
You see… you do know something about what makes your parents happy or sad or excited or disappointed, don’t you?
And you know what their smiles, frowns, or raised eyebrows mean. And even if you’re not with them, as you grow, you don’t really need to hear words or physically see them to know what their hearts want or don’t want you to do anymore.
Some things you just know because you know them. Like you don’t need them to tell you not to fuss or fight with your friends because you know that will make them frown.
And you don’t need them to order you to share with your sister because you know that sharing will make them smile.
How do you know that? You know that because if you’re keeping your heart soft and quiet, and loving your parents instead of letting your motor run with a selfish me, me, me life that wants your way all the time, then you are learning to hear and obey your parents’ hearts, not only their words.
The rules? That’s just baby stuff. And not very fun. So stop acting like a little baby.
And here’s a little secret that very few children understand: Your parents don’t want to give you more and more orders or rules your whole life. No.
Instead, they want your heart to become all wrapped up with theirs, with love. They want a relationship with you that is so close, so bound together, that you have a shared life with them that doesn’t want to break their hearts with disobedience.
And, here’s the fun part: if you’ll move closer and closer to obeying your parents’ hearts, you won’t need all the rules. And you’ll have more and more freedom because they’ll know that they can TRUST you to make them smile, even when they’re not looking. That’s what they want.
But they’re not going to give you “freedom” to do whatever your selfishness wants; that just leads to slavery to sin and satan. But if you start obeying their hearts’ wishes, you’ll find the freedom to explore the depth and beauty of a binding relationship with someone who wants nothing but the best for you and loves you so very much.
And right there is that little window into what God wants in His relationship with you. As you grow deeply in love with Him, your heart gets all intertwined with His. This is incredibly binding (to Him and His ways and wants and wishes), but it is also incredibly freeing. And that is eating from the Tree of Life — living in binding obedience to the smiles.