阅读经文 

这些句子使我们会想起亚当和夏娃的故事，当时他们犯了罪，不能再在乐园里享受神的同在。现在，我们已经快到了这个关于神对祂子民的爱的宏伟故事的结尾——我们又发现了生命树的图画，这难道不令人惊奇吗？

尽管创世记和启示录是由不同的人写的，相隔了好几个世纪，但他们使用了相同的生命树的图画。启示录这里所描绘的生命树有两点很重要：它是一个意象，有力地唤起了人们对永生的渴望，以及对在神面前得到深度医治的体验。而这里的“生命”的希腊文不是指生物生命的bios一词，而是指一切生命的zoe一词，即指一切有形的和属灵的生命。这里的意思是说，所有生命的源头都在神那里，并从神那里流出来。我们的造物主让生命的丰盛自由流动，并与所有人和所有受造物分享这份礼物。

这里刻画的生命树是上帝子民所有希望和渴望的结晶。它是一路走来所有未完成的故事的解决方案，是赦免的实现，也是直接体验神亲密同在的甜蜜。

Reading these lines takes us back to the story of Adam and Eve, when they sinned against God and were no longer able to enjoy God's presence in the garden of paradise. Now we are nearly at the end of this magnificent story of God's love for his people—and isn't it amazing that we find the image of the tree of life again?

Even though Genesis and Revelation were written by different people many centuries apart, they use the same image of the tree of life. There are two important things about the tree of life as it is pictured here in Revelation: it was an image that powerfully evoked a longing for eternal life and for the experience of deep healing in God's presence. And the Greek word for "life" here isn't the word bios, which refers to biological life; it's the word zoe, which refers to all life—physical and spiritual. The point here that all life has its source in and flows from God. Our Creator allows the fullness of life to flow freely and shares this gift with all people and all creation.

The tree of life pictured here is the culmination of all the hopes and yearnings of God's people. It is the resolution of all the unfinished stories along the way, the fullness of forgiveness, and the sweetness of the immediate experience of God's intimate presence.