When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. – Genesis 3:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 21, 2012): Genesis 3

A number of years ago there was a meeting on a University Campus. It was at the beginning of what has become known as the “Second Wave of Feminism”, or possibly by the more popular name of “The Women’s Liberation Movement.” The meeting was of a group of women and the purpose of the meeting was to honor Eve, the first feminist who made a stand against the male domination of her day (I guess that would be Adam.) In the act of eating that piece of forbidden fruit she made it known that a woman could not be commanded by anyone.

It was a strange moment in time to be proud of – and one that really proved that both men and women share in the same faults. We both know from experience what evil is really like. And that was the real purpose of the tree.

God created us, both men and women, with the ability to choose between good and evil. But the idea that we had the ability to choose meant that there had to be options between which we could choose. And the problem was that the beautiful garden in which man had first been placed was free of evil. We had the ability to choose, but nothing to choose between. So God provided a tree.

The knowledge that Eve, and then Adam, received on that day was the experiential knowledge of what it was like to do wrong – what it was like to do what God had prohibited. Since that day we have played the blame game – or, as the women on that University Campus would have argued, the honor game. But the truth is that we did it. It was us that ate of the fruit and we experienced what it was like to violate all the good that we had been created for. And in every life that has ever lived, we do it all over again.

The moment when we recognize what it is we have done and decide it is not a path that we want to continue with is one of the most important moments in our lives. It is the moment that God begins to recreate in us the good he intended for us from before time began.

    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 4