Among the people living in the tropics, for thousands of years, the coconut has been a virtual Tree of Life. The people use it for food, for clothing, for water, for tools, for soap, it does just about everything. The coconut has also saved a lot of lives. During World War II, pilots that were shot down or sailors a tree stranded on Pacific Islands, they live for many months on nothing other than the coconut trees that were on their islands. Yes, sir, the coconut is a tree of life. One of the amazing things about the coconut is their design so they're actually able to float across oceans.
Coconuts can go thousands of miles after many months be washed up on some deserted sandy beach, then they take root sprout come to life, and they'll develop a whole new ecosystem, holding islands in place through a hurricane. When the ancient Polynesian travelers crossing oceans saw an island with coconut trees, they knew there was hope. It's amazing how in virtually no time at all, those living on Pacific Islands know how to make baskets and all kinds of tools from the leaves of the coconut tree.
The coconuts even serve different purposes at different times in their development, the younger green coconut they're full of water, that'll keep you alive. You can even make your utensils from the coconut, my spoon is part of the green shell, and here this is a coconut jelly makes good for breakfast. The more mature coconuts that's where you get the meat, but you want to make sure that they're not bad the way you test this is you can hear the water inside. Bring that mic over here. Can you hear it? That's a good one.
How about we take a bite? Now that makes meal that will really fill you up, and it cleans your teeth at the same time. Throughout the Bible Jesus uses a number of metaphors to remind us that everything we need to survive comes from him. He says that he's the living water, Jesus tells us he is the bread of life, his robe covers us with righteousness, he is our Good Shepherd that protects us. Jesus is the living vine through which we get our life and our nourishment. You might say Jesus is like the coconut tree a tree of life.
You know the first few verses in the Bible tell that God provided a tree of life for man, so he could live forever, but because of sin man was separated from that tree and from the garden, but through trusting in Jesus and trusting in his sacrifice on the cross, we once again will have access to the tree of life and have eternal life with him in the kingdom. This is all made possible because we trust in Jesus who is the real tree of life. Jesus said ''unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you'' but when we accept Christ as our sacrifice, and we allow him to cleanse us and fill us with his spirit we become new creatures, and we can be with him in sharing the gift of everlasting life with others.
Matter of fact we could do that right now by tossing a coconut out, and praying that it lands on a deserted beach.