God is Not a Bulldozer

I have often wondered what was the purpose of forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. How about you? God had given Adam and Eve all they needed for life. Endowed in the garden were lush fruits of all descriptions, tastes, textures, sizes.. you name it, it was there. Adam and Eve could eat anything to their heart's content. However, there was one fruit they were expressly commanded not to eat and that was the fruit on the forbidden tree.

Human logic would dictate that perhaps it might have been easier to have not included this tree in the garden, right? Had it not been for the cost of that bite, perhaps you and I would have been in Eden today lining our stomaches with delights we cannot not even fathom yet see in our supermarkets today. Had that tree not been in the garden, there would have been no temptation meaning sin would not have been birthed. So why the tree? What was it's purpose?

Like so many other puzzling or unanswered questions, maybe my questions above are to be included on my list of questions I can't wait to ask my Maker when I depart from this life. However, I know that above all God is, God is also a God of choice. And that means He has given every human being a free will. A free will to select their own options. And that included the free will Adam and Eve had regarding the forbidden fruit. Theirs was a choice to either live or die. They instead chose to die.

God will never force His will on any person. Period. He is not a bulldozer, forcing His way into our lives and decisions. Even though He created us, even though He reigns with power and might, God never 'abuses' His power. God is a gentle King, sitting and waiting patiently for you and I to make the right choices. It is up to us what we choose. Is it to live or die?

© September 2006