Our Fall

I just read the story of the fall of man again and for the first time it made me want to cry. :(  "Poor God!" is what I was thinking.

I remember when we were reading a poem in college called the Sacrifice and it made the whole story of Jesus' death on the cross fresh for me and I was totally balling about it.  The professor said that's the response we should have or need to have about Jesus' death, like if we really love Him.

Well this time reading about God and Adam and Eve it hit me how much Adam and Eve let God down. 

For the first time I saw God as a caring father who just wanted to hang out with Adam and Eve but they hid from him.

It made me think of some case on the playground where the cool kids hide from the nerd because they don't want to hang out with him.

How humiliating for God!  Why would he put himself through that and make us, my goodness! 

But for the first time I really saw his love for us, for them.

I'm going through a devotional called "The Purple Book" and it asked the question, "How did God respond to Adam and Eve's sin?" 

Gen. 3 "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
⁹ Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

God came down to walk with them and talk with them and they were HIDING from him.  He just wanted to be friends with them and hang out, but they ditched him.  How sad!  And to think they were trying to hide from HIM, the God of the universe! 

But even though he knew they sinned, because he knows all things, he still came down to pursue them.  He wanted to know where they were.  Of course he knew where they were physically, but he wanted to know spiritually where they were.  He was concerned about them.  He cared.  A lot.

One would think he would come down with lightning bolts and dash them to pieces for disobeying him.  But no, he comes down to their level, to where they are, and asks, "Where are you?"

Like, "Hey I wanted to hang out with you guys, where did you go?  You seem really far off. :( Did you disobey me?  Why would you do that after all I gave you?  Don't you want to hang out with me?  I love you!  I would give you the world, I did give you the world, and you turned your backs on me?!"

But instead of confessing that they did wrong what does Adam do?  He doesn't take responsibility, he blames Eve for making him eat the fruit.  But he was standing right there when she ate it herself.  And he made his own choice.  She did not force him to eat it. 

And what does Eve say?  Rather than saying, "I'm terribly sorry, please forgive me" as she should have ,she blames the serpent.

Something also stood out to me.  Why did Eve eat the fruit?  It says, she saw that it was "desirable for gaining wisdom."  And the serpent told her that she would "be like God, knowing good and evil."

How many of us women still aren't curious about things and our curiosity only hurts us and sometimes leads to death.  We aren't content, and we think we need more.  We want to become more wise etc.  I realized something about wisdom.  Solomon asked for wisdom and God granted it to him so that he was the wisest man who ever lived, but how did being wise affect him?  He was severely depressed!  Have you read Ecclesiastes?  My goodness!  That poor guy was tortured by all that he knew.  So wisdom is not a good thing necessarily.  He says, "With much knowledge comes much grief."  Amen that is very true. :(

I was also thinking about why the tree was called "The knowledge of good and evil" and why did God not want Adam and Eve to eat of it.  The reason is because, just as parents wouldn't want their kid exposed to evil, so God wanted to shield his children, us, from evil.  Parents wouldn't their kids to see it or to know it.  They don't want their kids to see someone get raped or murdered.  It was the same with God. 

He was simply protecting those he loved the most in the best way he knew how.  But, he didn't want to be an overprotective parent, :) so he still gave them the choice.  "Live with me and stay innocent or choose to learn about evil and die eventually as a result."  And the same happens with teens all over the world now.  Parents say to their teens, "You can live under my roof as long as you....But if you choose to get yourself into serious trouble you can't live here anymore."  But we can't make our kids not choose evil.  They have a choice, just like Adam and Eve did and just like we do all the time with God. 

Oh that we would choose life and not death and friendship with God rather than hiding from him and disobeying him!  His heart hurts for us and longs for us more than we realize.  He is like a lover or a best friend who just wants to hang out with us but we keep pushing him away. 

Stop doing that.  Stop pushing God away.  HE LOVES YOU and wants more than anything to be with you and to just walk with you.  Let him be with you. :)  Don't run away from Him.  Don't get lost in the world and busyness and forget about him.  Don't let your sin keep you from him because he loves you no matter what.  Sit as his feet like Mary did and learn from him.  Draw near to him and he will draw near to you. 

God help us.  Help us not to run away from you.  Help us to come to you as you come to us.  Help us to see how much you love us and long for us to be with you.  Help us to not disobey you because you only want what is for our good. 

I'm so glad I read that story again with new eyes.  I finally realized everything.  Why God created us and why he put the tree there and why he gave us the choice.  He created us because he wanted to hang out with us.  He wanted the community.  But he didn't want to control us because control is not love.  Oh God you are so good.  Thank you for showing me what I did not see before.  Help me to realize more and more how MUCH you love me and all of us.  Amen :)

Grace and peace be with you all! :)