Perfection and the Fall

Yesterday's readings were my favorites. There are new beginnings; a created world in which everything exists in harmony; truly, it's all good! God is with us, first in the Garden, then in Bethlehem. The book of Tobit, in the Apocrypha, informs us that Galilee was a center of idol worship just before the Exile (which we will read about later on). This sheds some additional light on Jesus' birth. God not only chooses to dwell among the poor, but in the midst of the spiritually misguided. We can find great hope in this. Psalms and Proverbs point the way out; we find our guidance in God's Word and Wisdom.

But life in the idyllic Garden of Eden is short-lived. More important to me than "who" was the first to sin was the way it came about - doubting, self-justifying, committing, and then acting out of shame. The serpent twists the command of God around such that Eve takes a second look. The fruit seems good; what's all the fuss? Then it becomes pleasing to the eye; well, maybe just a little won't hurt. So, she eats then Adam eats and then...they cower from God. This is not the same as "the fear of the Lord" in Proverbs, which is awe; this is fright and shame. Sin, disobedience to God, has now entered Creation and everything is affected, even the earth itself becomes "cursed." And human relationships are corrupted, as evidenced by Cain's cold-blooded killing of Abel out of jealousy, and, in the New Testament, the mass-murder of innocent children by order of an earthly king who fears losing his power.

Yet, God still cares for His creation, sowing together clothes for Adam and Eve which they will need now outside the Garden. But mostly, we see God's care and love for us through the sending of His Son to a humble couple who respond obediantly to God. Psalms assures us that we have not been forgotten by God, despite the raging of the nations. And Proverbs reminds us that the "fear" that is, the reverence, of God is the beginning of the way back, the source of wisdom. Happy, indeed, are those who take refuge in God!