Adam - Original Hide n Seek

Be Like Adam – or not?

 

Maybe it was a Tuesday, not sure, that the Lord went for a walk during the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden and called unto Adam – 

 

“Where art thou?” 

 

If Adam had not partaken of the fruit, did you ever wonder how different the conversation with God may have gone? – What would Adams reply likely have been? — No shame, no self-consciousness, no need to hide, no fear, no obfuscation etc. I guess we’ll never know but you can guess and I’ll bet you’d be close. 

 

But he did slice off a bit of the apple, maybe with his Bear Grylls survival series pocket knife, and ate, knowing full well he was violating God’s command. So, when Adam heard God in the garden, he likely figured he was in a bit of T-R-O-U-B-L-E. He was naked, Eve was naked, and so he did what any quick-thinking guy would do. MacGyver the situation - grab what’s ever available, fig leaves, engineer a solution, then hide. 

 

“I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked: and I hid myself.” 

 

Of course, hiding is a very temporary fix so when God catches up to him, Adam calls an audible and deploys the next best cover he can think of – blame someone else – in this case Eve.

 

“The woman whom thou, gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”

 

As if it’s not bad enough, blaming Eve for his troubles, he also blames, by implication, God - “the woman thou, gavest…”As if to say, “If you hadn’t given her to me, we’d not be in this mess.”

 

And then, as you probably know, Eve then blames it on the whole situation with the snake.

 

“…The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

 

Really, we should all be familiar with this progression – people do it all the time!

              Wrongdoing

                  Hide

        Blame someone else

       Blame the situation

                                 Ultimately face the consequence of our own deeds

 

 

Think what you want of Adam, with God he played a pivotal role in all of creation.  The great offense was in Satan’s control of the timing.  Had they remained in the Garden throughout the Sabbath day of rest then they would have received the commandment to partake of the fruit in the Lord’s timing and we’d still be along.(DS) When considering this abbreviated sketch think about yourself as though you were Adam. Because someday you and I alike will get our own time in the garden with the Lord – in a sense. It will be then that we become aware of our standing before him and are judged accordingly. Live so you don't have to hide, blame or suffer. It'll be better that way.

 

Signed

 

John The-Not-So-Beloved

Mercy That Changed My Forever

It was an act of mercy I shall never forget. It was a Thursday - 1978 - 5^th period – 11^th grade English that I first noticed. I realized she no longer calls on me publicly in class for the answer to a question – she knew I would get it wrong. Typically, in life, when that happens, it’s indicative a person may have given up on you. However, to me, it was an act of mercy. No longer would I have to endure the in-class public shame and embarrassment that accompanied my particular brand of illiteracy.  It’s not that I was particularly stupid, it was that I was literally the education product of a two-teacher, two-room school house (1^st–6^th grades), from a small, barely existing mining town. My father was a forest ranger there. Fast forward a couple years and I’m in that class in a large high school. It would be the next Tuesday as class was dismissing that I heard, “would you please wait after class,” directed at me. My body language was screaming, “please just get it over with, I know I don’t know.” She sat on the corner of the desk next to me and we exchanged a moment of silence – I thought I knew what was coming. When I looked up, with tear filled eyes she said, “nobody ever taught you this, did they?” That’s not what I expected. My eyes watering in a sort of grateful humiliation was all the response I could muster. She was not abandoning me; she was assessing my willingness to come to her for the help I needed. 

There you have it. Her brand of mercy was not just the tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook error, but the willingness to reach down with an offer to lift. Justice would require her to fail me. But her brand of mercy would help me make the payment that justice required. I spent enough extra time with her that I would make it through her class. Mercy is often justice that someone else pays for.  She helped me enough that the demands of justice in her class could be met. 

If you want mercy from the Lord, you must give it to your fellow man. If you do not show mercy to your fellow man, the Lord cannot provide it to you. There is a law which binds the Lord to the same standard you set for yourself. It is an irrevocable law.  The Lord teaches us to show mercy so that we might merit mercy. We are the final beneficiaries of all the mercy we show to others. It really is true that that which we send out shall return to us again. This is called ‘karma’ in another faith. It is a true principle. Perhaps it operates within a larger time frame than just this life, but it operates nonetheless. (Glossary of gospel terms, second edition)

I should have, but never did, made my way back to her class after I graduated to thank her. Not only for helping me get through that class, but for the merciful act that changed my forever.

Signed

John The-Not-So-Beloved