IN THE GARDEN

                                                                              

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Recently, I was thinking how like our ancient parents we all are.

No, I’m not referring to our respective elderly, or late parents, as the case may be. I’m talking about a couple who go much further back than that. Do the names “Adam and Eve” ring a bell?

Of course, virtually everyone, irrespective of country of origin, culture or religion are familiar with them, and their story. And if you believe the Christian tradition, (which I do by the way) Adam and Eve happen to be the father and mother of every human being, approximately 100 billion of us, who have at one time lived, or who are now living on the earth.

According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were placed in this idyllic garden, and they were “given all things to enjoy,” except this one tree, and this one fruit which grew on the tree. You know, that luscious fruit which would allow them to differentiate between good and evil. (And contrary to popular belief, we have no reason to think it was an apple). Perhaps you recall the Lord warned the hapless couple to refrain from eating the fruit of that tree, lest they die. They were commanded to till the ground, and maintain the garden, but to, as it were, ignore “the gorilla in the room.”

I have sometimes wondered why the Creator decided to plant that tempestuous little tree in the Garden, when our original parents might have lived out their lives perfectly content, and without a care in the world.

But here God, as it were, digs a hole in the middle of a perfectly good garden, and plants this alluring thing in their midst knowing full well His best and brightest (well, best anyway) creation would be tempted to… do the wrong thing. A notable scholar has prognosticated that Jehovah put the tree there in order to give Adam and Eve the opportunity to obey or disobey, as God never intended to create mindless robots.

Pt. 2

Of course, you and I know “the rest of the story.” Their natural enemy (and ours), Lucifer by name, appeared in Eve’s midst, and suggested she pluck one of those little delicacies, and take a big, wet, juicy bite of it. Of course, Eve reminded Satan that God had warned her, and her husband against such a dastardly deed, and that if she ate the fruit, well, she would surely die.

Well, the former archangel would have none of that, and he immediately corrected our great great grandmother with the words, “You will not surely die!” And he presented the strong implication to Eve that God was just a spoil-sport, and that the Creator of the earth, and worlds and stars “didn’t know His head from a hole in the ground.”

Ultimately, we know that Eve succumbed to Satan’s suggestion, and after she ate the tasty “Winesap” (for lack of a better characterization), she brought one to Adam; who proceeded to cram it between his teeth and his tongue.

Of course, as the result of having eaten the fruit, we are told that Adam and Eve recognized they had been trapsing around “in the altogether,” and, as a result, they covered themselves in leaves. Obviously, all of these “going’s on” had not caught the Creator unawares, and He decided to investigate the scene of the crime.

And as God “did a star trek” before there was a Star Trek, and energized Himself onto the most traveled pathway in the Garden, Adam and Eve made almost as hasty an exit. In the briefest and most tempestuous of moments, the noblest of God’s created beings fell from grace, and literally “bit off more than they could chew!”

And, as a result of his sin, and the appearance of his righteous Creator in the Garden, Adam hid himself from the sight of God. Well, the I AM would have none of it, and He could only do what His righteous instincts demanded.

Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. And as for the dying part of God’s admonition, our original parents, who had been designed to live forever in the beautiful Garden, literally began to die. Their lifespans were cut short. The years would grow heavy upon them, and they would, ultimately, die; as men and women, boys and girls continue to die today.

Pt. 3

As I have previously inferred, I think each and every one of God’s most magnificent creations have in the past, are in the present, and will continue to walk in the footsteps of our ancient parents, Adam and Eve.

I mean, each and every one of us have been placed in a particular ‘garden,’ and called to do a particular thing in the location in which we have been ‘planted.’ And in our own way, and our own time each and every one of us have succumbed to the temptations which surround us, and on a daily basis. None of us are immune, and every one of us have succumbed, in one way or the other, to the temptations which surround us. We have, as the sixth book of the New Testament reminds us, “fallen short of the glory of God.”

I have often reflected on the difference between a mistake and a sin. I think if we could call Adam or Eve back among the land of the living for a Q&A session, and we were to ask them the difference in these two words, we would receive an immediate response.

“Well now, let me see here. You know I’ve ‘been there.’ And from my way of thinking, the difference between a mistake and a sin is that while a mistake is simply a mistake, every sin we ever sin has been premeditated in advance.”

Oh, I have been prone to blame ole Adam, and his wife before him. If only they had simply obeyed, and refrained from eating that piece of fruit, we would all still be living in the Garden, and wiling away our days in the lap of innocence and luxury. Of course, we intuitively know that is not the case. Didn’t A&E’s son, Cain, sin after them, when he killed his brother, Abel? (That’s a rhetorical question). Of course, he did.

Sin is premeditated, and requires a series of actions leading to its culmination. It is based on the location in which we have been planted, the temptations with which we are surrounded, and our willingness to act upon the initial thought which sounds a lot like,

“Well now, wouldn’t that be fun?”

 

Afterward

Like father like son. Like mother like daughter.

We are all products of nature and nurture. And from the time nature and nurture began the process of naturing and nurturing, sin has ruled and reigned on the earth. Adam and Eve “got the ball rolling,” but we have all lined up behind them, and rolled the proverbial ball down the lane.

We have all been planted somewhere, and we have all, at least intuitively, known to do good, and to resist evil. And some of us, as the result of our premeditated choices, have been “banished from the garden” in which we were planted; some as the result of disease, or divorce, or the inability to achieve God’s best plans for our lives.

And others experiencing a more dire result; which I will leave to your imagination. And regrettably, those chronic, irresponsible, premeditated decisions some have made, and a failure to incorporate the only remedy which has the power to restore them to God has led to irreconcilable, permanent banishment from the Creator, and the place where He resides.

 

Somehow, we conveniently make an exception of ourselves among all the billions who ever lived, and moved, and breathed on the earth, and sinned before us, and we mindlessly place the forbidden fruit between our salivating lips.

 

“The ultimate cost of sin is far greater than the wages it initially pays.”

 

By William McDonald, PhD