Genesis 2:8-14
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
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.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
God planted a garden to be home for man. God placed trees in the garden that were not only pretty to look at, but were also good for picking fruit that the man would be able to eat. Any time that the man felt like he was hungry, he could walk up to a tree, pull off a piece of fruit, and eat to his heart's content. In my five-star imagination, I envision that there were very few calories in this fruit. The fruit of these trees was probably naturally sweetened and had just the right amount of sugar. There were no health risks in eating the fruit of the trees in the garden of Eden.
There were two trees in the garden that produced beautiful fruit but had great implications for eating that fruit. Those two trees were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By eating of the tree of life, man would live forever. Not a bad deal, huh? By eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man would die physically. God didn't stand around holding man's hand to make sure that he ate from one and didn't eat from the other. The choice would be man's and he would do well to choose wisely.
Not only did God provide nourishment, but He gave man plenty of water in the garden to quench his thirst. God allowed a river to flow through the garden, and the river broke off into four directions. In my five-star imagination, I see that as a representation of the abundance of water that God provided. I think of that provision when I look at a globe or see pictures of the earth's surface. Most of it is covered by water! God did that intentionally....
God named the garden Eden. Eden means "sweet" or "pleasant". Life in the garden, for the man, could have been pleasant and sweet. He had everything he needed for survival and didn't have to break a sweat for any of it. Everything was perfect. How sweet is that...