In the beginning...
God's Plan
Adam and Eve
All of Creation turned out to be perfect, just as God had planned. Humans too were perfect. But God did one more thing to make them even more like He is. He gave them a choice - to love and honor Him, or not.
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God told Adam that he could eat from any tree in the Garden except one certain tree in the middle. (See Genesis 2:16-17) If they ate from the wrong tree, they would die. With this command, Adam and Eve could choose whether to love God, or not. They were far more advanced than the animals. They were truly free, with a mind and a will of their own.
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We'll see that God later paid a tremendous price to do this. But He was determined to continue to love Adam and Eve, and all humans, even if they didn't love Him.
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And sure enough, it wasn't long before they chose to disobey. But they had some help with their choice to do evil. Read about it in Genesis 3.
One day a snake came and spoke to Eve. It was Satan. God had created Him and all of the angels in heaven even before He made the universe. But Satan had started all of the evil by trying to be god, and to take over
heaven. So God threw Him out of heaven.
Now Satan had a plan also. He wanted to ruin God's plan for us. So he came to Eve in the form of a snake. Satan asked Eve, "Did God really say you couldn't eat from any of the trees in the Garden?"
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Eve replied, "No; God just said we shouldn't eat from the tree in the middle of the Garden, or we would die."
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Satan said, "You know, you won't really die. You'll just be wise like God." Eve saw how delicious the fruit looked, and she wanted to be wise. So she took some and ate it. She gave some to Adam too, and he ate it.
The minute they ate, they knew they had done wrong.
It looked like the end
When they disobeyed, life with God was over for Adam and Eve. Death came to all of Creation. All of God's beautiful design and work seemed to be wasted. Humans were no longer like God. Adam and Eve felt naked. So they tore up some more of God's creation and made some clothes for themselves out of leaves.
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Then God came walking in the Garden. Adam and Eve were ashamed, and afraid God would punish them. And why not? In fact, don't you wonder why God didn't just turn off the light He had created, and let everything just go back to nothing again?
God wants to keep giving life
But we can learn from God's Word that His plan was not finished. In fact, He had hardly begun with all the life-giving. So God called to Adam, "Where are you?"
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Adam couldn't hide from God, and neither can we. God knows everything. But He wanted Adam to think about where he was in his life with God.
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And Adam admitted, "I was afraid, because I was naked."
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When we feel naked, or afraid, or ashamed, we should do like Adam, and just admit it to God. Then see what God does.
We Have an Amazing God
God declares war against evil
"Who told you you were naked?" God asked Adam. "Did you eat from that forbidden tree?"
And the excuses began. "It's this woman YOU gave me," said Adam. Eve jumped right in. "The snake fooled me." They were trying to blame someone else, just as we often do. But God knew the truth. He always does.
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Then God declared war between Satan and humans. We have to watch out for snakes, and we have to watch out for Satan. God told Satan that Eve was going to have a family. One day someone from that family was going to crush Satan's head, though Satan would hurt his heel.
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Then God told Adam that making a living was going to be hard. And He told Eve it was going to be painful to have children. But God made them some clothes out of animal skins so they wouldn't feel so naked anymore. Even some animals had to pay for Adam and Eve's sin. It was sad.
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Then God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. But this was actually Good News for them, and for us. God allowed them to continue to live. And best of all, God joined our side in the war against Satan and his evil plan.
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Over the years, God came walking on the earth again and again as He continued with His plan.
God's amazing plan continues
Adam and Eve had two sons, named Cain and Abel. After they grew up, Cain was trying to do life on his own. He was trying to be Number 1, like with survi-val of the fittest. But Abel was doing life with God.
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When they each brought a sacrifice to God, God showed that He favored Abel. Cain got jealous. He didn't like second place. He was the first bully, and he killed Abel. Then God came and punished him.
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The Bible has more stories about God coming to walk on earth to talk with someone. Some people continued to do life with God, but God often had to correct and discipline them to keep them close.
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But God had a final solution in mind all the time.
He had a way to make
everything perfect between
humans and God once
again. And when the time
was right, God came
walking on earth once
more to take care of it
forever.
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Read about it on the page Life w/God above.
