It doesn’t really seem like that big of a deal does it? I can see what she was thinking. “If he told us not to eat its fruit then we
probably shouldn’t touch it either.” I
can imagine her thinking that she was adding a layer of import to what God told
them. But it really was a big deal. Rather than simply taking God at his word she
felt the need to add to it, to interpret it through her own lens. In some ways it feels like she thinks she
knows better than God. If she hadn’t
taken this simple misstep I wonder if she would have taken the next even bigger
step to disobey God.
I find this scene to be so indicative of how we treat God
and His word. How often do we think that
we know better than God? How often do we
think that we really know what He meant to say when we don’t like what we read
in the bible? How often do try to make
our efforts at righteousness more important than simply being faithful and
obedient?
My heart breaks every time I read Genesis 3:8. God is walking in the Garden in the cool of
the day and Adam and Eve are hiding from Him in their shame. If only they had simply been obedient they
never would have feel the need to hide.
How often do we hide from God’s presence? I yearn for the day when I can walk in the
Garden in the cool of the day talking with God.
I know that when I come to the foot of the cross and hand my life over
to Jesus each day that I get a glimpse of that.
Some days I am overwhelmed by the deep sense of God’s mercy and love – I
can only imagine what it will be like when my Lord Jesus welcomes me home for
good.
I need help with one of the biggest questions I wrestle...Why did God put that tree in the Garden at all? What was the purpose of exposing His creation to the threat of evil? Moreover, why point it out? If I point out something bad to my kids, they will naturally want to go to it; if I don't mention it, the likelihood of it appealing to them drastically diminishes. God wired us so He had to know curiosity was within humanity, right? (I realize I'm tiptoeing on the "What is the meaning of life?" question. My grandmother is dying and my head is swirling.)
ReplyDeleteGreat questions. I think the answer that I usually lean on is that God doesn't want lemmings. He gave us brains and wants us to engage those brains so that we can make a choice. We are called on to "love the Lord your God with all your mind, with all your heart and with all your strength." For me this means that we wrestle with our curiosity and with temptation and then realize that we want somethign more. I always wrestle with the "what would I have done in the Garden question." Or worse - "what would I do in the Garden today." I hope the answer is that I would trust God enough to not eat of the tree but some days I don't know. I will certainly be praying for you, your grandmother and your family.
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