This eternal cry of man was asked by a young lady in my 8th grade Sunday School class. I gave the standard response of original sin and, in deference to the child, I threw in an analogy that Adam and Eve were “sent to their room” as a way to put it in perspective for an 8th grader.
A couple of days later I awoke in the middle of the night with a better analogy.
In the beginning
Adam and Eve were with God from the beginning – and all was well. We all know the story of the fall; Adam should have been watching over Eve, Eve ate the apple, Adam ate the apple, etcetera. Enter a different God into the picture. A God Adam and Eve had not encountered before. A disappointed God, an angry God, a God whom they had betrayed.
Now we know that God is all-knowing, all-good and all-powerful and He had to know this was coming. So, could God have simply wiped out the two troublemakers and started over? Sure, but that wouldn’t have been very loving, and God is love. Could He have simply erased the incident from all history and started over? Sure, but an indiscretion occurred and justice must be served and God is, of course, justice itself. What to do? Clearly a punishment is in order but how can one repay an offense to God?
Since our God is a God of second chances, He expelled His creation (which probably caused Him much sadness and grief), but what exactly did this expulsion mean? What changed? After all, God would still be there; just a bit more distant.
- In the garden he would seek us out, now we had to seek Him out.
- In the garden he provided all, now He only provides the means.
- In the garden we wanted for nothing, now we have an unceasing hunger to want for the creator.
Like the parent of a stubborn child God allowed us to have our way in effect saying “ok, do it your way but if you need help, I’m right here”. And in short, we were banished to this existence.
But was it our fault?
Mankind did not invent sin – we were tricked into it by Satan. So, do we deserve all the blame? No, and neither was all the blame put upon us. In fact, whatever our punishment is, Satan’s was worse. But did we learn from our mistakes? Nope. Instead of seeking out God and trying to make amends to Him, what is the first thing we do? We commit murder. Interesting that the first recorded sin after the fall in the Bible is murder. Mankind didn’t start meekly – no sir – we dove right in and committed the gravest of sins – the murder of one’s own brother, and there’s been no sign of improvement in us from that point on. Greed, fornication, envy, stealing, coveting idolatry and more. It’s an endless parade of sin and yet through it all God says “ok, do it your way but if you need help, I’m right here”.
God has provided a pathway back to Him, but (collectively) we are just too stubborn to follow His suggestions. Ever consider what this world would look like if we just followed God’s rules? Well, there would be no crime, no hunger, no shortfalls, no injustice and no jails. There would certainly be hospitals because there would still be death and sickness, but there would be an abundance of support to overcome such devastation. We would still sin (it’s in our nature you know) but we would recognize our sins, ask forgiveness, seek penance and support each other. But instead, we tear each other down and do our best to use each other for our own means. We build castles here on earth and we build them tall indeed, but not to be closer to God, rather to be used to look down upon one’s kingdom and upon others.
The current circumstance is clearly not what God hoped for, but justice must be served. We have done the crime and we need to serve the time. To be sure, we can (and will) be saved but He won’t save us until we are ready to be saved. We will never be perfect, and we will always need more perfecting. Above all we need to learn obedience, patience and kindness. This learning is the “perfecting” that we are currently enduring – and we are most definitely learning it the hard way.
But why even put us though this? If God knew we would fall, so why even tease mankind with Eden in the first place? Perhaps it is because without an Eden, the concept of Heaven would be meaningless. If we did not know of Adam and Eve’s birthplace, would we even want to seek Heaven? Perhaps God didn’t so much use Eden to tease us but instead allowed the first two humans a taste of true freedom, and of the paradise to come. A taste so sweet in fact that it lingers on our tongues to this very day. Eden and Heaven are two different places and when we are saved we will go to Heaven, not Eden. Eden served its purpose and it is gone now. If we were meant to go back to where we started, Eden would still exist. This means that God has something better planned for us and that better place is called Heaven. How much better? Think of it this way; Adam and Eve will be jealous of the existence we will enjoy in Heaven.
On to the finish line
Perhaps today we will get bogged down in the struggle. Perhaps we can’t see the forest for the trees some days or, perhaps this “perfecting” is part of the creation process itself, but regardless, we must strive to do as Paul said in 2 Tim 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
See you at the finish line