Sabbath Devotional :: Eve, Mary, and the Tree of Life

(Suggestion: Take a second to study this print of Mary and Eve by Sister Grace Remington of the Cistercian Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey before reading the scripture chain below.)

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“And when the woman saw that the tree was good . . . and a tree to be desired to make her wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband with her . . . And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” (Moses 4)

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“And Mary said, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word . . . My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed . . . And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.” (Luke 1)

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“And I looked and beheld the virgin . . . bearing a child in her arms. And the angel said unto me . . . Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.” (1 Nephi 11)

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“Use of Christmas trees started with medieval [morality] plays, popular from the early middle ages (476 AD) to the beginning of the Renaissance (c 1400 AD). Plays that celebrated Jesus’ birth were linked to the creation story, primarily because Christmas Eve was the feast day of Adam and Eve. Paradise trees represented both the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life . . . [and] were decorated with apples to represent the forbidden fruit. Because apple trees were deciduous trees and lost their leaves in winter, the tree evolved into an evergreen.” (Carolyn A. Roth)