Blue Tint Glasses

Genesis 2:16-17 – And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the treee of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

There’s a lot going on in this chapter (as if creating the earth in the first chapter wasn’t a lot going on), God has created Adam from the dust of the ground and then creates Eve from Adam’s rib giving us an example of a man leaving his father and mother to be with his wife and becoming one flesh.

However, it is also in this chapter that we also get the first reference of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil of which God has commanded Adam not to eat from.  When I stopped thinking about what I know will happen concerning the tree and simply focused on the tree itself and why God put it there I realize a few things.  God has called it “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” meaning that evil was already a part of the equation at that point.  The name of that tree alone implies that evil had already occurred, if not in the garden, then at the time of Satan’s fall.

So rather than physically preventing Adam from eating of that tree, God gave him a choice…and inviting the possibility of choosing wrongly.  A free will.  God still gives me choices everyday, and everyday I seem to make a wrong choice or ten.  But after living with consequences of wrong choices and decisions that cause pain, I think it has taught me to think and choose more carefully.

But why would God even put that tree there in the first place and forbid Adam from eating of it?  Why even offer us the option of good or evil?  I think it’s because God wants us to obey, but he also wants us to have the freedom to choose.  Because without a choice, we are essentially prisoners or slaves and any obedience on our part would be hollow.

When I was in elementary school I had many forms of hollow obedience to my parents, one of which was cleaning my room every Friday.  That was the rule they had.  And I the only reason I would clean my room was because my mom made me and if I didn’t have it cleaned then I wouldn’t be able to hang out with friends, play video games or do anything that an elementary boy would find fun.  I cleaned my room because I was forced to, and I didn’t ever enjoy the clean room when I was done simply because the reason I did it in the first place was as a means to be able to do something else.  But, surprisingly, there were a few times when my room was so messy I couldn’t even stand it so I decided it clean it without being told do.  It was a choice to clean it.  And it was after I made the decision to clean my room, without being sent there to do it, I was able to enjoy the sparkling room when it was done being cleaned.  Same result as the Friday after school cleaning, but this time I had ownership in it.  And it made my mom smile too.  I think that’s why God gives us the freedom to choose even when his deepest desire is for us to obey His plan for us.

So not only can I choose to honor God everyday with the decisions I make, I can reap the rewards for choosing to obey and spurn the sad consequences that come from disobeying God.

What I realize from this chapter is that God does not force us into anything…he’s given us a free will.  But I believe that deep in our hearts we long to worship God and to surrender to Him.  The beautiful thing is that he’s made it personal for each and every one of us to choose with our own minds to obey his word and to give Him the glory.  It’s not a cookie cutter cop out for everyone, there’s no one-size-fits-all-faith.  And when we do glorify God with our decisions, He’s there with a big smile.