Let's take a look at the trunk of the tree and understand what God means when He tells us to "lay hold on eternal life" and the very trunk of the tree so we will always stay out of the twigs that can take up our precious time and lead us into areas where we could fall out and get severely hurt ( 1 Timothy 6:12 1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Perhaps many of you reading this article have done the same as a child.ĭo you know that God's way of life is very much like climbing up into a large sturdy oak tree? And just as the oak trees I used to climb as a young boy were safest when I was holding on to the trunk, we are also the safest when we are holding on to the trunk of the tree-the tree of life-and God's way of life. Once or twice I was up in the tree and a strong wind would blow through and I would hang on to the trunk of that tree with all my might until the wind would die down. If I dared to climb onto them, they would very likely break and I would fall out of the tree and get severely hurt. I never climbed out onto the thin twiggy limbs because I knew those little branches could not support me. I liked to carve my initials in this tree as high as I could climb and reach so everyone who climbed up there in the future would know I was up that high. I would sit up in that tree and look around and feel like the king of the world. When I was a little boy, around age 7 to age 9, I loved to climb up into a large oak tree in our side yard behind the victory garden (World War II) and see how far up I could climb before the tree branches got too small.