I have been reflecting a great deal lately on the choice of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: how it was a commandment to multiply and replenish the earth and find joy; how they were not to touch the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. How Eve made a choice.
I feel there are a lot of opinions out there on whether it was good or bad, whether Eve was courageous or a sinner; about the fine points of difference between sin and transgression.
But what strikes me this morning is that she was choosing between a life of perfection, of bliss of comfort...and the unknown realm of growth.
She was still choosing between Satan's plan and the plan of God.
I have been so frustrated in my own life about the presence of perceive injustices, disparities between economic, etc situations, cruelty, etc on a macro-scale: in the world, in communities at large. I have struggled with its presence in my own life: continual personal sin, sins of others hurting me and those I love, things just plain going wrong. Stuff. Bad stuff. And somehow I have it in my head that a life full of ease and bliss is what I am supposed to have, even entitled to have, if only my faults and those of other people (I tend on those more :S) would just get out of my way.
I have a choice.
God's plan was never the one with the life of ease. Happy ending, yes. Happy journey, no. We knew it would be a time of testing. Satan saw it and, like many of us do in this life, decided that, "nope!" Like him, deep down we really don't want God's plan. It is too hard, too unfair, too unjust. Agency just has too many "unpredicalities."
You know, the eventual outcome of the plan of happiness is to be like God, and is His life free of pain or of sorrow? We read in the Book of Moses how He saw Satan wielding his chain over the children of men, His children, and laughing. And God wept.
He weeps when we struggle. He yearns to help us. But in order for His plan to work, we have to choose Him. Choose to become like Him. Choose to see the lesson in the pain. Choose to embrace the instruction in the tears. Christ chose it. It was hard. He groaned under the weight, sweated under the pressure, and embraced every pain and sorrow because He knew that we could not do it on our own and be able to move past the moment of learning otherwise.
He paid the price so our suffering is as minimal as a truly repentant heart.
We choose.
So do we want to be like God, one who witnesses pain, suffering and injustice at the hands of others as they use their agency in this trial by fire? Or do our hearts still yearn for Satan's plan, the perpetual Garden of Eden?
What do we choose?
I feel there are a lot of opinions out there on whether it was good or bad, whether Eve was courageous or a sinner; about the fine points of difference between sin and transgression.
But what strikes me this morning is that she was choosing between a life of perfection, of bliss of comfort...and the unknown realm of growth.
She was still choosing between Satan's plan and the plan of God.
I have been so frustrated in my own life about the presence of perceive injustices, disparities between economic, etc situations, cruelty, etc on a macro-scale: in the world, in communities at large. I have struggled with its presence in my own life: continual personal sin, sins of others hurting me and those I love, things just plain going wrong. Stuff. Bad stuff. And somehow I have it in my head that a life full of ease and bliss is what I am supposed to have, even entitled to have, if only my faults and those of other people (I tend on those more :S) would just get out of my way.
I have a choice.
God's plan was never the one with the life of ease. Happy ending, yes. Happy journey, no. We knew it would be a time of testing. Satan saw it and, like many of us do in this life, decided that, "nope!" Like him, deep down we really don't want God's plan. It is too hard, too unfair, too unjust. Agency just has too many "unpredicalities."
You know, the eventual outcome of the plan of happiness is to be like God, and is His life free of pain or of sorrow? We read in the Book of Moses how He saw Satan wielding his chain over the children of men, His children, and laughing. And God wept.
He weeps when we struggle. He yearns to help us. But in order for His plan to work, we have to choose Him. Choose to become like Him. Choose to see the lesson in the pain. Choose to embrace the instruction in the tears. Christ chose it. It was hard. He groaned under the weight, sweated under the pressure, and embraced every pain and sorrow because He knew that we could not do it on our own and be able to move past the moment of learning otherwise.
He paid the price so our suffering is as minimal as a truly repentant heart.
We choose.
So do we want to be like God, one who witnesses pain, suffering and injustice at the hands of others as they use their agency in this trial by fire? Or do our hearts still yearn for Satan's plan, the perpetual Garden of Eden?
What do we choose?
