"Now a river flowed out of Eden and there divided into four parts..."

Gushing, spreading, surrounding

water sustaining life

going from the place of God's presence 
to the outliers.

I don't want to reduce Genesis 2 to just an ancient tale of a garden and a river, merely a symbolic account. However,  the symbolism of God's Spirit flowing from the center of God's fellowship with man is unmistakeable. The river's source was within the garden, where God walked with man. The river's life giving potential flowed from its source then gushed and spread in all directions. Jesus made it clear that the one who believes in Him has this hope: abundant life in companionship and oneness with the Lord.  John 7:38-39, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

God's Spirit

gushes from
the innermost being of a believer in Jesus Christ
and reaches the outliers

with His love.

We have nothing else to really offer 

but this:

His love

overflowing from His presence
in us.
multiplying and spreading

flowing...

never stagnate;

this is the river of life.

A river flows...it moves or it is not a river. God's Spirit moves too. If your spiritual life is stagnate, perhaps you are living more separately from Him than you thought. Perhaps you are living like an outlier even though you've been invited into His presence. 

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’" Acts 17:24-28

About those trees...

My sweet grandmother Dorthea, as many of her spiritually minded peers, always loved the hymn "In the Garden". If you're a fan of country music or a baptist, you may be familiar with this hymn too:
"I come to the garden, alone
while the dew is still on the roses
and the voice I hear
falling on my ear
the Son of God discloses
and He walks with me
and He talks with me
and He tells me...
I am His own.
And the joy we share
as I tarry there
none other
has ever
known."

     I never loved it except to hear my Nanny sing it, with joy and confidence and more than a little off key.
I think of Adam when I hear this hymn, walking in the garden with God.
I think of Adam coming upon these two trees. Both good for food, beautiful to look at, and placed intentionally in Adam's world by God.
Two trees- one with an invitation and one with a prohibition.
And of course, on behalf of Adam and Eve and the entire human race I ask, "Why God? Why did you put that tree there?"
How could a temptation to make a wrong choice be a good thing?
     The Hebrew for "good" can mean: to serve a purpose...to perform a function well...to be fitting for the ultimate goal. What was that goal? It was to be a reflection of God's being and character and a partner in managing the created world (Gen. 1:26). But Adam was finite, limited. Adam was only human and so, it would take him forever to come into a full life experience of His purpose. It would take Him a forever of walking and talking with God to partner with Him in his position as "Image bearer of God"... "Assistant manager of the world". Since Adam would need forever, God planted the tree of life. A tree that would sustain Adam...would tend to the workings of his body with every sumptuous bite.
The other tree...the one we consider the source of the curse, would tend to the workings of his soul with every closed lip refusal to bite.
The option to trust and obey was an invitation to live and to love.
But Adam was new to life. He was new to God. He knew nothing of death. He knew nothing of evil.
God did.
God knew Satan.
God already knew loss and separation. God had already been betrayed by one of His own, Lucifer.
God knew the misery of being intimately acquainted with evil.
This knowledge, this personal experience of evil was something from which He wanted to protect Adam. But true intimacy must come from a choice to know and be known. It must come from a decision to trust. So God said "no" to the tree of knowing good and evil.
He didn't appear to give much of an explanation.
How many of us who have been parents understand that a two year-old wouldn't understand a long explanation of our "no". We also cannot place our two year-old in a position where we never have to say "no". How would they learn to trust us? How would they learn anything at all without choices? How would they learn to love?
God didn't begin his relationship with Adam with a bunch of rules...just one.
One "no" in their own little world of "yes"...
Just one opportunity to trust,
one opportunity to choose,
and an invitation to live...
to love
and to be loved.

God plants a garden...Gen. 2:5-8

I have a little garden in a small corner of our yard. There, surrounded by a little fence, grow little rows of cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, cauliflower (not sure why), and scallions. All around my little vegetables are big weeds. The things I want to eat I had to plant and care for; but the things I'd rather not eat came without any effort at all.
Ask any gardener...gardens take work. The first garden was no different. God sectioned off an area and planted a garden, food for the man he was ready to create.

God's garden would take effort. It would take intention. There were already things growing...wild things that grew at God's bidding but now He was making something to sustain the body and soul of a man. And the man would have to take part in the cultivating process. God's garden was distinct from the rest of creation as a place of partnership between Creator and created. God's garden was a place designed for relationship.
Then,
the "LORD GOD" made man.
 Moses, the author of Genesis, refers to God for the first time in Genesis 2:5 as a personal God, the Supreme One who makes Himself known to His own....
the God who comes close to His people.
God scooped up the dirt and organized cells into the body of a man.
From the substance of the earth, the common material for all living beings, God fashioned Adam.
Then from the breath of God,
 came the breath of man.
And God set Adam in His paradise.