The Apple Meant to Be Eaten
by C M Dummerauf of CHICKMELIONfreelance
It was a set up right from the start!
For who would know human nature better than He who created it. Seriously, if He didn’t want us to eat of the tree He would have stuck it way back on the edge of the garden... hidden it in between a gnarly thicket of bramble. But no, it was conveniently placed in the middle of the garden. So no matter where Adam or Eve were at... north, south , east or west, they were bound to happen upon it.
Now most of us have seen the shows like “Hidden Camera,” where a child is placed in a room in front of a plate of cookies and was left alone for a few minutes with the solemn warning not to touch a single cookie in the absence. We killed ourselves laughing as we came face to face with our own reality of human nature. Tempted by curiously, tempted by a desire, the need for knowledge about our object of desire, the need to exert our own influence and control in our direction of growth whether it be physical,mental or spiritual. Cause and effect kind of knowledge. That which sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Being vastly superior in the capacity to think, learn and grow through infinite choice and possibilities. Far more infinite and complex than any other living being on this planet.
We were all perfect people in the womb. Not unlike Adam and Eve in Eden. We did not disappoint our God there, nor our parents. But there came a point in time for us to enter a new phase in our existence. To be born to choices, testings, and knowledge. To me the account of Adam and Eve is the account of the birth of choice.
We learned to crawl when our parents put our object of desire just a hair out of our reach! Then we started disappointing our parents, crawling into everything, putting our lives in jeopardy with harmful choices. Yet in these testings and trials we learned to appreciate our world, our freedoms and our selves. We learned to stand by falling on our rear. We learned love and tested the integrity of that love, when we chose to turn from it. We learned courage in the face of our fear and we learned truth in a lie. In essence... unless we had experienced both sides of the continuum, our true and honest knowledge of what ever we were testing was not put into effect. That was our Makers point. How could we understand His love, His wisdom, and His desire for only the best in us unless we tested the integrity of these. Until we left the birth place Eden.
We were designed as independent thinkers given freedom of choice and with that comes some standard hard fast rules that apply to us all. Rules that He well understands... given that He created us: Firstly the only person whose behavior we can control is our own. Notice how He doesn’t attempt to infringe on this? Secondly, all we can give another person is information. He indeed equipped us with hard fast rules that in His words, “we can LIVE by.” The rest is up to us. Because in trial and error we are more likely to own the consequences of our decisions and direct our own paths towards completion. Like perhaps the desire to return to Eden.
God has faith in us. He would not have allowed us to roam from home without the faith that love conquers all things. We have all roamed from our home and most of us have learned to appreciate our parents when we too have become parents. We come to appreciate the difficulties in His decisions and the love and wisdom in His teaching of forgiveness; that allows us all a paved path back to Eden.
We have had to forgive our children at times too. We have learned all this because we have eaten from the tree of knowledge ourselves and been bit by the snake. We suffered our bumps and bruises, slings and arrows... and have come to appreciate the blessing in our trial called life. Which we would have never gained had we never ventured forth. Had we stayed in the womb, never disappointing anyone. But Oh what a sweet and glorious taste it is to gain victory in knowledge. What a sweet taste it is for Him when another prodigal comes home. There’s nothing that can compare. No love greater than appreciated love.
Why do bad things happen? Because you or someone has practiced their freedom of choice and it’s cause and effect rippled down to your existence. But before you cry out of the unfairness of this, understand that you too have caused ripples on the pond and others had to suffer the cause and effect of that. We never quite fully grasp the understanding of our interconnectedness. Why do bad things happen? So good things can be learned from it. I suppose, as long as we walk this earth and until we return home to His loving arms, we are destined to keep on eating from that tree of knowledge. For as many stars there are in the sky, there are possibilities, choices, and lessons for us to gain knowledge from. Yet I choose to see a positive in all this. There is a blessing hidden in every lesson learned and every step forwards which we as humans take. Yes, I do believe it was a set up right from the start!
