That One Moment

"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 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 tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'"   Genesis 15-17

In yesterday's blog, a phrase from this verse caught my eye and I decided to ponder on it today.  It's something I never noticed before.  Look at the last phrase:  "for when you eat of it you will surely die."  Not if, but when. 

I can't believe I didn't notice it before.  And as I read through this account in Genesis, I see that knowing that Adam would eventually eat from the tree didn't stop God from giving him His good and perfect gifts.  He made Adam ruler over the garden, bringing before him each and every animal that he had made and allowing Adam to name them.  Not only that, but He gave Adam a wife, created from his own side.

I can't help but wonder if that one moment, the one where God predicts Adam's sin, is a defining moment in history.  At that moment, God tells us in His word that He knew exactly what Adam was going to do, but God kept His love for him, and for the rest of mankind in the generations to follow.

It must have been bittersweet.  Knowing, absolutely knowing, as we discussed yesterday, that His way is the way of good, and yet knowing just as certainly that we would walk astray, we would stumble.  It kind of breaks my heart for God, you know what I mean? 

The facts of this story are proof of God's love for us.  It takes strength to let someone go off and do their own thing.  It takes strength to love someone who doesn't love you back.  It takes strength to give all you have to someone who is unappreciative.  I know that we were created in God's image.  I'm so glad it's not the other way around!  If God were created in our image, He'd be whining, fussing, selfish, unreliable, unloving, unloveable, purposeless, drifting in the wind from one thing to another. 

But no, we were fashioned after Him!  Chapter 1, verse 27:  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

If you're like me, that's a verse I've passed over many times and not really examined deeply.  But that's a shouting hallelujah verse!!!  HE created us.  HIM - creator of each and every star in the sky, the creator of all things from the heights of the heighest mountain to the depth of the deepest sea - HE is the one who created us.  And not only that, He created us to be like Him.

Why do I bring that up?  (Besides the obvious worship time I'm having?)  Because of love.  His love.  His love began for us before we were formed.  His love has endured no matter what we have done or how many times we have sinned against Him.  He knew we were gonna do it and He loved us anyway.

With a love like that, how can we hold anything back?