IT'S HARD TO IGNORE A TREE. Especially one that towers fresh and green in the midst of a barren desert. A tree whose fruit-laden branches—fed by the waters of a river that cuts through the arid sand—stretch upward and outward in a rich, leafy umbrella that welcomes weary travelers into its healing and protecting shade.
That's why it's not surprising that the ancient Hebrew people, accustomed as they were to the desert lands of the Middle East, pictured God's strength and munificence in terms of a "tree of life," a luxuriant evergreen planted by rivers of heavenly water, that bore fruit continually. From beginning to end in the Bible, this tree of life is a recurring symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth—from the tree of life in the garden of Eden, to the riverside groves of the prophet Ezekiel, to the apocalyptic tree of life in St. John's book of Revelation, where the leaves of the tree are "for the healing of the nations." See Gen. 2:9; see Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 22:2.
To the Christian Scientist, the tree of life, with its leaves of divine healing, represents much more than an end-of-the-world vision. Their lives have shown them that "the healing of the nations" is not just future possibility. It's present reality. Spiritual healing is for today, for every day—and forever. The simple, but infinitely profound and practical, rules of Christian Science, as they're described in Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, are for anyone to understand and successfully apply. The desire and ability to heal—to see the spiritual perfection of God's idea, man and the universe—are inborn, given to us all by God. They are essential to our very being. As Science and Health announced to the world some 125 years ago, "The 'tree of life' is significant of eternal reality or being." Science and Health, p. 538.
