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There were always two trees. The fruit of the first was the tempt that brought on the curse. The stain on the second was the blood that was both its cost and cure. The tap root of both trees was the lavish and limitless love of God.

At the dawn of creation, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was placed purposefully in the Garden. The first man and woman wouldn’t see it this way, but that tree was clear evidence of God’s love in creating them (and us). Perhaps you have trouble seeing it that way too. Here’s what I mean: When God created the first man and woman, He gifted them His likeness. He made them in His own image, deliberately absent one thing. They were made without strings tethered to their precious arms and legs. It was always God’s intent for them (and us) to have a choice. There was one He desperately wanted every single one of us to make, but it was always His will for the choice to be ours. He gave up everything, in a manner of speaking, to give them (us) that choice. That “everything” was the possibility that even one of His precious children would not choose Him and love Him back.

We know the story. We know their very first choice. It’s a choice we’ve repeated ourselves countless times and in countless ways. All sin is a variation of the first sin. Failing to trust and choosing other than God. This is why Jesus came. This is why there was a second tree.

The day of our dear Savior’s death is the absolute hardest of which to write. It is the day I see my self most clearly (there’s deep purpose in the space that separates “my” and “self” – do you hear it in your own heart?). It is the day on which I most step into the story. I hear my own voice in the crowd that cried “Crucify Him!” I see my own face in the faction that wielded the whip and pressed the “crown” into His brow. It was me in the masses that lined the Cross road; my sin that He took on His own body as the darkness descended and the earth convulsed. Today is personal.

Sin demanded a ransom that only One could pay. Its price was paid on a tree. Christ’s cross and coming drew a straight line back to original sin. On that line hung every sin since. Jesus took those and every other one there would ever be upon Himself and paid the price that we never could. The lavish and limitless love of God was never more clear than on the day his Son’s blood was poured out for us and stained the second tree.

Before the dawn of creation, did God hope in His heart that every single one of us would trust and choose Him and not eat of the fruit of knowing apart from Him? I am certain He did. Many have struggled with His allowing of suffering, rooted firmly in a decision He could have made to not give us a choice or to say no to creation because He saw what it would become. But can I share something very personal that I have seen in the wrestling with all of that myself? I see in that moment of decision that He saw me. He saw me and decided that I am worth all He would have to lose to gain eternity with me – even the giving of his only beloved Son. Please know there isn’t an ounce of pride in that seeing, because I confidently believe He saw you too — and said yes so that you could one day say yes to Him.

Does God really love you that much? Yes.

The two trees certainly say so.