Friday, February 25, 2022

What Have You Done?

 

Friday, February 25, 2022

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made.  One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”  “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.  “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat.  God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”  “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.  “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”  The woman was convinced.  She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.  Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.  At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.  So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.  When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.  So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.  I was afraid because I was naked.”  “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked.  “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”  The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”  Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”  “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”  Genesis 3:1-13

The typical default of humankind is to deny responsibility.  It started with Adam, and ended…nowhere.  Bill Watterston’s Calvin and Hobbes took me back to Eden, and the epic struggle of the human family to escape responsibility for what we do, and, therefore, what we are…sinners.

Calvin is six, and has a thought-world that Stephen King would die-for.  He comes to his Dad and announces:  “Ive concluded that nothing bad I do is my fault”.  In the conversation Calvin blames his youth, bad influences (just like Adam blamed his wife), and today’s cultural false values. 


 In the end Calvin takes no responsibility at all for his behavior…it’s society’s fault! 

Calvin’s Dad (representing the typical answer from God for such nonsense) turns the table and replies:  Then you need to build more character.  Go shovel the walk.  Calvin, shovel in hand, trudging through the snow, summarizes with a sigh:  These discussions never go where they’re suppposed to.

In the end, Calvin, my friend, these attempts to shed responsibility reveal that which IS our character; the discussion ALWAYS goes where God wants to take us…back to truth

For You Today

The Psalmist gives us right perspective on our Adam and Eve tendency.  Today’s final word is the antidote to any temptation to be Calvin:

Exalt the Lord our God!  Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!  Psalm 99:5

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©    



 

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