God is love and everything God does is initiated in love and because of love. He created us because He wanted to have a family and He gave us everything to keep us healthy, happy and content.  This is the beginning of the Love of God.

God walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, and we can only imagine how beautiful that relationship must have been. Even though God saw everything and knew everything, He wanted to share His love with Adam and Eve, and His only rule that He gave to Adam was to not eat from two particular trees.

In their innocence they would likely have shown Him everything that was new every day. God would gently hold the new lion cubs that delighted Adam’s heart, and He’d stroke the precious baby songbirds in their tiny nests. He would inhale the perfumed fragrance of the roses on the perfect bush and He would walk with them barefoot on the carpet of soft green grass.

Eve would likely have prepared a delicious vegan meal and the three would have dined in peace and tranquility as they laughed and talked as any children would with their father. Evenings were a special time for Adam and Eve because God came to visit.

But as with any great story, there is always a dark side and Satan was determined to steal God’s joy by destroying His relationship with His children. He managed to deceive and convince the serpent to let him in if only just to see this beautiful garden, and then once he was inside he begged to be able to speak to Eve just to tell her that he was proud. Eve was flattered and then she was deceived when the devil convinced her that this same loving God, her father, would not kill her for eating from the forbidden tree. After all, could a father that loving do anything to hurt them?

So, Eve ate the fruit from the tree and nothing happened. She didn’t die. She felt great. She listened to the devil again and took some fruit to Adam. He knew it was wrong but he loved her and listened to her. He took his eyes off of God and committed the first sin. He ate the fruit, an act of disobedience that would change their lives – and ours – forever.

From that second on, Adam felt the cold surge of sin creep throughout his body as the devil laughed cynically through the serpent. Adam was sorry and wanted to take it back but it was too late. Sin was in him and now the presence of sin was in the holy garden.

God cannot be where sin is and so when He came for His evening meal, He called for Adam but he and Eve were hiding because they knew that they had disobeyed God, that they were no longer pure, that they felt separated from Him – and they were ashamed.

Neither Adam nor Eve had the realization of what had happened or that they had initiated the fall of mankind, but God knew – and the devil knew. Yet, God was more sad than angry because He loved them and now He had to cast them out of the perfect garden. Now they were separated from Him and they couldn’t come to Him to talk or laugh as they used to do. Now they had to live in a world that was not perfect, that was filled with tribulation and that was controlled by Satan.

It must have been a very emotional event. God was hurt beyond words; Adam and Eve were very sorry for what they did and now they would have to live without the father who they loved. But when God sent them out, He made a promise to them, that He would send a saviour who would take this sin from them and cast it into hell so that they would be pure once again and reunited with God. Adam and Eve waited and hoped every day that this would be the day of their redemption, but sadly, it was a few thousand years later, long after their passing, before the Saviour came.

And God kept His promise and Jesus, His own son, came to earth and was born through Mary so He could have a human body like ours. But Jesus had no sin in Him because He wasn’t from the lineage of Adam; He was from God. And so on the cross He took upon Himself all of our sin so that He, too, would be punished and sent to hell because of that sin. But since the sin was not part of Him, He was able to drop it off and leave it there, and then He descended out of hell and rose to Heaven where He has prepared a mansion for us and where He waits for us.

Satan thought that he’d killed God’s plan when Jesus took on that sin, and he thought that Jesus would die, too, and would have to stay in hell. Can you imagine his shock when he saw that Jesus was still alive? Or his astonishment when Jesus freed all the people who the devil thought he’d stolen from God? Or the fear that he endured when he watched Jesus rise to Heaven and then promise to return and destroy him?

Now you know why he is working so hard in this world and why crime and sin and perverseness is out of control. The devil knows his time is running out and he wants to do as much damage as he can in the time he has left.

Meanwhile, God has His children back to love and bless – and all we have to do is accept Jesus as our Saviour and thank our Father for His faithfulness and for His love.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish, but would have everlasting life”

…. John 3:16