Genesis 2:16-17 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

I was blessed in so many ways as a child. I had great parents who loved me and were very generous with me, while at the same time were careful to see that I was never spoiled. Their generosity was never so fully on display as at Christmas time. I loved Christmas and all the lead up to it! I remember the Sears Wish book and our copy was full of markings and pages folded for my parent’s convenience! When the big day came, there was a little mountain of presents. I don’t think I ever really got everything I asked for, but I got an awful lot.

I wonder what their reaction would have been if I had opened all the gifts and said, “Is that it? Is there nothing else?” I shudder to think I might ever have been so rude!

God created the world and everything in it. He did that in six 24-hour days (He is God after all!) and rested on the seventh day. He put man in the garden and showed him around. He provided far more than Adam and Eve could ever have possibly needed. After the tour, God pointed out one tree of the countless others and said, “Don’t eat from that one.” Look around. Pick any week in your memory. Were any of them marked by more good news than bad? Absolutely not! We constantly see more and more bad news. Sometimes we wonder, “can it get any worse?” Sadly, we see with regularity that it can. And it all goes back to that garden. Because even though they were given a mountain of gifts, they decided to focus on what they weren’t given. Satan whispered in their ears, but it was their decision.

They coveted what they were not given. They stole what wasn’t theirs. They lied about it after the fact. They participated in their own death. They committed idolatry by treating themselves as God. God loves us. Because He loves us, He sets limits. He says that somethings are not for us. When we disregard His will in our lives we sin. We face results and they are not good. Far better to accept that God knows better. He sees all. He knows all. He loves us.

Because of these things we can trust Him. And we should!

Blessings,

Pastor Russ