The Tree of Life
“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Genesis 2:9 · KJV
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Revelation 22:2 · KJV
There was a tree in the middle of Eden whose fruit gave life, and after the fall God set cherubim and a flaming sword “to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen 3:24). The way back was shut with a blade.
The Bible opens and closes at the same tree. In the last chapter it stands again, “in the midst of the street” and on both banks of the river, “and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2). The sword that guarded it in Genesis fell on Christ (“awake, O sword, against my shepherd,” Zech 13:7), and the road it blocked is open: “blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates” (Rev 22:14). The tree lost in the second chapter of the Bible is regained in the second-to-last. The whole story is the way back to one tree.