I recently heard on one of the TV news shows that a Christian place of worship on a military base couldn’t be adorned on the outside anymore with Christian symbols, signs and emblems.

It was said that to do so would show partiality. However, the symbols, signs, and emblems can be carried inside during the service. The same would be the case for all other religions on the base. That’s fair. After all, we don’t want this worldly government dictating one religion over another.

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The Apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (II Cor. 12: 7) probably had to do with his eyesight. Some reasons for thinking this are (1) He was temporarily blinded at his conversion.

(2) When being tried before the Jewish Council, he criticized the actions of the high priest. The people standing nearby said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?” Paul then apologized for not being able to see who it was he was talking to. Acts 23: 2-5.

(3) To one group of readers, Paul said, “If possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.” Gal. 4: 15. I suspect this was said because they knew and had sympathized with Paul’s vision problems.

(4) Finally, Paul had others write his letters, but in one that he wrote with his own hand, he pointed out the large size of the written characters (Gal 6: 11).

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Since God knew that Adam would fail the test of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and because He knew that sin was inevitable in our world, perhaps the creation of the tree and the placing of it in the garden were to serve as a reminder that we should listen to and trust Him.

God made explicit the consequences of eating from the tree. That ought to remind us that God has our best interests in His heart; that He is not going to steer us in the wrong direction.

The tree reminds us that we should trust in and be obedient to Him; knowing that His commands are righteous, being derived from a divine, all-knowing wisdom.