What If?

Have you ever sat alone in your room and asked yourself the “What ifs?”  What if I had gotten that college degree?  What if I had married someone else?  What if I had the opportunities others have?  What if I had been born into a different family?  I am certain that you have.  I know that I have.  Then we really can’t be too hard on Eve, can we?  The Gardens of Life are always interrupted by merely a suggestion.  “What if?  Maybe?  Are you sure?  Can you be absolutely certain of His love for you?”  It seems like an important question.   

God and humanity had a good thing.  Sweet fellowship.  Humanity was given freedom in the matter.  God did not desire humanity to remain unless he wanted to.  God wanted the whole arrangement to be of the heart.   He was less interested in dutifully obedient subjects and much more interested in friends who desired and longed for His friendship.

Imagine that you are God for a moment.  I doubt that you have ever had to stretch your imagination so much!  But just try to imagine that you are the all-knowing, all-powerful, ever present Creator.  And You want to have friends!  You want to have beneficiaries of Your qualities and wealth who enjoy Your company.  You are fully aware that no one can govern the universe as You do.  Anyone else would miserably fail.  After all, You formed it.  But You have no desire to be a distant and demanding Deity.  You want to share the joy of giving Your qualities and wealth and also enjoy the creations You give them to.  You have a sincere dilemma.  As God, You are frightening!  You are large and in charge.  There are obvious reasons why Your creatures might approach You out of duty rather than desire.  The only possible remedy would be to give them a sincere choice.  You will first give them the gift of a created sphere to govern.  You will give them all of the required abilities to govern.  Then You will daily visit them and enjoy their company while teaching them Your own way of government.  This will go on forever.  In this You, as God, will have friends who submit to Your way of governing the sphere that You have made.  Lastly, You will always give them the option of governing without You.  They are not forced to do this with You.  However, sadly, there are obvious consequences to dismissing the Creator from ruling Creation.  Humanity did not create it and therefore is not fully sufficient to rule it without the Divine Heart.  In denying the Creator as governor, they are denying His Spiritual Heart.  Their own hearts would rule.  Their own hearts would become the god.  And this would leave room for much subjective judgment.  Obviously, as God, You would not want to see this happen, nevertheless, You are obligated by Your own wisdom and justice to create the option.  So, You provide an edible opportunity….

  A Tree.  A growing entity that produced a possibility.  It advertised an appearance of health but had no Life – much like a human government would be.  However it was an option.  And, although the Biblical account does not give us all of the details, I am sure that the Man and the Woman were informed of the option.  They knew that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil offered an opportunity for self-government.  What they did not know was this thing called Death.  They did not know what it looked like, felt like, smelled like and tasted like.  What if they could govern themselves, exist without a need for Deity, be wise as this visiting Creator, and not die?