Surprise!

There really wasn’t an apple. If you didn’t know it already, here’s the skinny . . .

In Genesis, the first book of the Judeo/Christian and sorta Islamic tradition, God does a really mean thing. He takes the one thing that will supposedly be the downfall of mankind, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and places it smack-dab in the middle of the Garden of Eden.

Now, here’s why that’s just so, so nasty. God, of course, knows everything. So God certainly knew that Adam and Eve (or Eve and Adam to be more exact) would make a midnight snack of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

God also knew that the serpent would do his best Satan impression, tempting Eve, tripping up Adam and sending mankind into God’s doghouse.

As stupid as we are and with our fragile powers of prediction, can you imagine one of us building a beautiful play room for our child, furnishing it with every toy our kid could want, dropping a loaded machine pistol in the middle of the floor, then planting a subliminal message with “Oh, darling! We’re going out for a bit. Now, while we’re gone you can play with any other toy in the room except that shiny, new, gunlike toy thing we just bought. Never, ever, ever, ever touch that one, Ok? Ta-ta!”

We done yet? Nah. On top of that we go grab smarmy little Johnny – the mischievous neighbor kid with the really bad judgement (the serpent in the Genesis story) – and send this mini-demon into the room to start up a game of cops and robbers.

Would we do that? Of course not!

Even with our feeble understanding of future events it’s pretty obvious that this situation is just a really bad accident (sin) waiting to happen.

Now, ya gotta figure God is a way better and way more loving parent than any of us could ever hope to be. So, if we wouldn’t put our kids in situations where failure (sin) is a given, why the heck would God?

Unless. . .

Unless that very situation is necessary for the little rug rat’s full growth and developement.

As painful as the experience would be for Adam (mankind), God could only have wanted us to “partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” – to “become like God” – as part of our spiritual rite of passage.

Bottom line, God wants us to know the difference between good and evil – just like God knows. If that wasn’t the case, then Adam wouldn’t have had that pesky Tree of Knowlege of Good and Evil stuck it in the middle of the garden complete with the serpent as the front man.

Think I’m streching this a bit? Well, you don’t have to believe me. But if you’re a Bible believer I’d suggest you take a look at the first part of Genesis 3:22,

“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil“.  Genesis 3:22a

Chew on that one for a while…  then take a look at A Rock So Big