James 4:4-6

From the very beginning of time, God has wanted more for His people. There was no glitch in the system that the Lord originally created. In six days, He created exactly what He intended, exactly what we needed, lacking absolutely nothing. When He created man, He knew it was “not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18) so he blessed Adam with Eve, who was perfectly suit able for him. God did not have to do that, He chose to. He gave Adam and Eve everything they could have ever wanted or needed in addition to perfect unity and friendship with God. They would even walk and enjoy the cool breeze in the Garden with Him.

God gave Adam and Eve one rule, “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 2:16-17).

The tree was God’s way of giving Adam and Eve a choice. Without this choice, they would have been like robots, but God did not want robots, He wanted free creatures that CHOSE to obey Him because they trusted that He knew what was best for them.

But then, along came the serpent. The sly, charming, and seemingly friendly serpent twisted the choice into a pride game as he offered his friendship and the fruit to Eve. He implied, “You won’t really die… God just doesn’t want you to see how much better life is on this side of the garden.” He lifted up the forbidden fruit and as soon as Eve’s teeth sank into it, she became a friend of the world- an enemy of God. Adam quickly followed. This choice to disobey, this choice of “my way is better” separated Adam and Eve from God. But He still chose to give them grace by clothing them with the fine wool when they were confronted with shame and nakedness. He showered them with grace, though they were so underserving.

Each moment in life today, we have that same choice; to live as God intended in complete obedience because we know His way is better. Or, to befriend the world because in our prideful state, we think we know better.

We serve a gracious, loving, omniscient, powerful, caring God. Shouldn’t that make us believe that His way is better?

The choice is ours.

                          What will you choose?

Photography: @mattglenn