Branching Outwards

           It has been a long time since I have done one of my devos. so I thought I would type one up today that I have already written out and I'm doing these for a small Bible study at my church so it goes both ways.  This devo. is from Genesis 2:8-14.

          "Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed man He had created. And the Lord God planted all sorts of trees int he garden-beautiful trees that produced delicious fruit. At the center of the garden He placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed from the garden of Eden watering the garden and then broke into four branches. One branch is the Pishon, which flows around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. The gold of that land is exceptionally pure, aromatic resin, and onyx stones are also found there. The 2nd branch is the Gihon, which flows around the entire land of Cush. The 3rd branch is the Tirgis, which flows east of Asshur. The 4th branch is the Euphrates."-Genesis 2:8-14

           The center of the garden is like our hearts is the center of our body. Every feeling, good and bad, comes from there. At the same time, it can produce beautiful fruit within us and outside of us. IT can and does give us life because without it pumping we wouldn't be living. It pumps the blood that helps us breath and other things to keep us going. Just like God planted all sorts of trees, He made all kinds of people yet we still fit into His Plan. He plants us in a spot for a purpose and a time. Why do you think the area around the garden and in the garden would be told if it didn't mean something today? It goes from talking about the tress to talking about the river that had many branches. The river is all one in the garden but outside of the garden it breaks into 4 branches. The 1st branch goes around a town of gold that is pure and onyx stones. That should tell us that we should be around people that "feed" us the truth and encourages us in The Word of God. Then the 3rd and 4th branches, the Trigis and the Euphates are big ones still today.
              The branches of the river could be the different areas of our lives. We could give some over to God and let them be pure as gold or just let them keep going around the same town in circles like some of the rivers do here and that is all the Bible tells us. Nothing exciting about those rivers. If you took the time to really look into history though I bet there is but let's not think about that for now. Those rivers that keep going around in circles might not be as important to God then the ones made of pure gold but every branch is the same to God just as important and we need to let Him in on everyone of them. At the same time, those could become popular through time in any way if we aren't careful with them. They could take our hearts over like they could take an city over.
              Our hearts have 4 chambers and each chamber has a tube. The blood goes in one tube and out the other. You don't hear about the Pishon as often anymore if at all. It could also mean that if we are greedy and keep all that gold and wonderful things to ourselves, we might make God sad. If we are like the Tirgis that we still here about today, giving up those wonderful things then God would be happy with us because we are sharing His Glory with other people around us. We are sharing the Good News about Him!