The Fallen Branch

How I love my morning walk.
I love the solitude.
I love what I see.
I love what I hear.

I am always amazed at how the littlest, simplest thing can be the most profound.
It is not that I am more astute.
I look for things.
I seek to be aware of my surroundings.

In that respect, I have never grown up.
I do find things wonder-filled.
God’s creation astounds me, even, or most especially, in my own neighborhood.
You can find a, WOW, as my son used to say, sprinkled throughout your day.

I was going around a bend in the road.
I was noticing many branches in people’s yards from a storm we had the week before.
Even though we all clean up the branches from our yards, some remain.
It was then I saw it.

It caught me off guard.
It actually bothered me.
I wasn’t afraid, but it reminded me of something.
It reminded me of The Garden and Adam and Eve.

It’s not every day that I think of Adam and Eve on my walk.
However, it is not everyday a branch causes me to pause.
My mind told me that it just happened to fall that way.
However, it looked so real.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:1-13)

As I looked at the branch, hanging from the tree, I saw the head of a serpent.
I didn’t set out to see it, but it was there nonetheless.
It’s mouth was hanging open, waiting to devour.
I thought of the passage in Genesis that explained the Fall.

I thought of the brokenness of the world.
I thought of the news, and the strife, and the unrest.
I thought about how everyone has an answer, a solution.
However, no one really addresses the problem.

The brokenness of our world is sin.
The ugliness of the sin we see is in our own hearts.
No government official is going to change the root cause of our problems.
Only God the Father, through His Son, Jesus, can change a human heart.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

The serpent, who tempted and hated the image bearer of God, still does.
He wreaks havoc and tries to destroy the image of God in a person.
But Jesus.
The One whom the serpent bruises, is the One who will crush the head of the serpent.

That open mouth, waiting to devour, is already defeated.
That hideous enemy who tries everything to destroy the image of God, has lost.
The branch is still there, hanging precariously from the tree.
One day, it will be gone.

Maranatha.