John at the young age of 7 is very curious about things around him. He loves to eat cookies no matter what kind they are. John’s dad of course knows all this. He wants John to learn that life is all about choices, and choices are always associated with consequences. So John’s dad places a white chocolate cookie jar and a chocolate chip cookie jar front and center on the dining room table. He asks John not to eat from the cookie jars in the dining room, but he can eat from any other cookie jar in the rest of the apartment.  He leaves John alone and goes to the bathroom.  John tries very hard not to come near the cookie jars in the dining room, but it gets the best of him. John reaches into the white chocolate chip cookie jar, and takes a bite.

Even at his young age two worlds collide, the ecstasy of the great taste of this cookie and the frustration over doing what his dad asked him not to do. He hears his dad approaching and he hides under the table.

Dad sees one of the two cookie jar lids open, confirming what he already knew John will do. Dad calls for his son. John, squeamish and afraid, comes out from under the table. He hugs John and says, ‘John I love you and I will not hurt you because you did not do what I asked. But since you made a choice to eat from this jar, I will lock the door to the dining room so you will not be able to get to eat from the other cookie jar I asked you not to eat from. John actually felt relieved, as it is his father’s love that matters most.

We are raised with the belief that there was a ‘fall’ when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit. That God, as a result, separated them from HIS presence. That God could not forgive what they did. So it is a story of failure on the part of man and of condemnation on the part of God. We title the story ‘the fall’ but there is nothing in the story about; falling from the grace of God or the separation from God or God not forgiving them. Nothing about condemnation, rather it is much like the story of John and his dad. Read it for yourself and here are the highlights;

Genesis 2:9; two trees in the middle of the garden

Genesis 3:3; not to eat from the trees in the middle of the garden

Genesis 3:6; both made a choice and ate from the forbidden fruit and it was pleasing

Genesis 3:16; Eve you will have labor pains (can’t keep you in Eden)

Genesis 3:17; Adam you will have to work the ground to eat from its harvest (can’t keep you in Eden)

Genesis 3:21; God made garments of skin for them and clothed their nakedness (do you see the love here?)

Genesis 3:22; cannot let you eat from the other tree, the tree of life, so I will need to lock it up (the consequence)

Don’t let words like ‘banished’ and ‘cast away’ get the best of you, for they are more like ‘sent them away’ and ‘kept them out’. Just like locking the door of the dining room. In my opinion, the title of this section should be “unconditional love” instead of “the fall”. It is only if you think that God resides ONLY in the Garden of Eden that would lead you to believe that there was a separation between God and man. And I know that you know otherwise, therefore there is no separation in this narrative. There is no condemnation, rather consequence which life is all about. In other words, there is no ‘fall’.

The proof comes in Genesis 4:13 where Cain is crying out to God; “I cannot bear the punishment of being hidden from Your presence for killing Able…….”    Proving that quite sometime after Adam & Eve eating of the forbidden fruit, God’s presence was still there then as HIS presence is here now and forever. God is one and God does not change. It is time to see the CONTINUITY of God through old and new ALIKE, and being the SAME through the past, the present and the future.

It is indeed time to shine the floodlights on the message God has for humanity since the beginning of time. Let us accept HIS love. Let us preach HIS message of LOVE rather than a message of condemnation. Do not take my word for it………………. READ IT ……….. and see what God is telling you and not what the title of that section is telling you. And if God is nudging you towards the love in this account, start asking questions and ask them with love. Not to challenge but to learn more about God’s LOVE.

So it is time to ask the same questions I ask each time and urge you to start asking at your church. Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church? Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant? Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible, for it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂