Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Cross (as in the Cross of Christ) (08/17/06)
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TITLE: The Third Tree | Previous Challenge Entry
By Helen Paynter
08/19/06 -
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The first was comely to behold. Luscious hung its fruits; fragrant and beguiling.
‘To eat of this fruit brings death,’ the Creator cautioned. ‘Believe none other concerning this matter.’
The second tree was noble and tall, truth and life knotted into its limbs. They loved to embrace it, resting against its resinous trunk, their cheeks laid upon its satin wood.
But the third was mysterious and terrible. They shuddered and went not that way. Yet it was strong and fair, and they knew not why it should appal them.
And the siren call of the first tree enticed them.
And they partook.
With grief the Creator cast them from the Garden and from all its blessings, wresting them from the second tree, to which they clung with hopeless tears. But even in his wrath, he birthed within them a future hope. And as he spoke of it, the Creator nodded towards the third tree. And the third tree inclined its boughs towards its Creator, and waited.
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The third tree released its seed to the earth, and it lay buried in the ground until the time came when life stirred within it.
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The deeds of wickedness mounded high, and the Creator-Avenger lamented over the rape of his creation.
‘I will sluice the earth,’ he declared. ‘I will cleanse it of its foulness, that the mountains may breathe again, and the streams laugh once more.’
But in mercy, the Creator-Avenger provided deliverance for a few.
And the seed, full-grown, was felled and fashioned into a boat. So it was an instrument in the Creator-Avenger’s gracious plan of salvation.
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But the tree had released its seed to the earth, and it lay buried until the time came when life stirred within it.
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The deeds of wickedness mounded high, and the Creator-Avenger-Lawgiver drew apart a people for himself.
‘I will teach them my ways,’ he declared. ‘They will taste my forgiveness. I will paint them such a picture of sin and mercy that the whole world will witness my love.’
And the seed, full-grown, was felled and hacked into firewood; kindling for the goat-sacrifice, beneath the Shekinah presence of the Creator-Avenger-Lawgiver. So it was an instrument in his gracious plan of salvation.
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But the tree had released its seed to the earth, and it lay buried until the time came when life stirred within it.
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The deeds of wickedness mounded high, and the Creator-Avenger-Lawgiver-Redeemer unveiled the definitive solution.
And the seed, full-grown, was felled and hewn into a wooden cross, and the heavens were rent by the death of God. So it was an instrument in his gracious plan of salvation.
For he released his Son to the earth, and he lay buried until the time came when life stirred within him.
For the one who was Creator, Avenger and Lawgiver had been Redeemer from the beginning.
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