Learning To Hate Dad

I was up in my bedroom one evening with the new knife that my parents had entrusted with, and I was cutting a cardboard box. All of a sudden the knife slipped, and I stabbed myself in the leg. Oh no! I’m cut I thought to myself, and our family was just getting ready to leave the house for a school play. I wasn’t sure what to do! I couldn’t ruin our plans, and I’d been cut before, and cuts always heal up, so I thought I wouldn’t worry anybody with it, I’d just put a band-aid on it and go to the play with my family. We went to the play, it ended, I checked my cut, and it hadn’t healed at all, so I started to worry about it. As I worried, and tried to think of how I could fix this mess, I figured that the only way to fix it would be to show it to my dad. When he saw it he scolded me for not showing him right away, and took me to his office to get stitches. I knew I was in good hands when my dad was fixing me up. You see, when I was young, I looked up to my dad like he could do nothing wrong. My dad knew everything about everything. Us kids could ask him any question and he would have the answer. He was the best doctor in town, the best driver. I remember speeding around the corners of the windy road that led to our house in my dad’s sports car, just totally relaxed, wishing he would go faster, because I knew that my dad had it under control. He was the one that, when me and my brother played football, would always be able to go out for a pass, stick his high arms up, and catch the ball…and there was nothing we could do about it. I remember what it was like walking into my dad’s doctor’s office…in the waiting room was a bunch of patients there to see my dad, and all around in the office were all of dad’s employees. I knew that my dad did an important work, and yet when I went into the office building I could walk straight past all the patients and employees, into my dad’s private office and he’d be dressed in his white doctor’s coat, always be happy to see me, and eager to go home. “Oh, I only have five patients left, and then I get to go home with you guys.” He was the one who loved me, and who would stand up for his kids. I admired my dad so much! He was the one who knew everything about sports, cars, politics, finances, and God, and I believed everything that he told me. I had a perfect trust in my dad, and I knew that he delighted in it, and loved the fact that with perfect trust, I admired him.

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, they lost all that. They lost that perfect trust that God had created them with. What had God done for them? He’d taken six days to create a world for them, and who knows how long He spent planning it. Genesis 2:8 says that God planted a garden for them! What would a garden be like that God planted. When my friend Abbey was here we went to the botanical garden in San Antonio, and we both agreed that it was a slight taste of heaven, but that’s a garden that man planted. What would a garden be like that God planted? He planted the Garden of Eden for them. The word Eden in Hebrew means “pleasure”. God created a garden of pleasure for Adam and Eve. When God made Eden, He created more than just a functional system…He’s more than just an engineer, but an artist with a lover’s heart. In fact, after God had spent six days making everything that He’d made, during those six days, Gen. 1-2 says that God created…God moved upon…God called…God made…God… divided…God…gathered together…God formed…God breathed, and after those six days, He sat back and said, this is good…the word good has a richer meaning than just good, when God said this is good, He meant, “beautiful, bountiful, cheerful, fair, fine, joyful, kindly, loving, pleasant, wealthy…good” all these are implied in the Hebrew word for good. Creation was good because God had carefully crafted everything for Adam and Eve’s pleasure and enjoyment.

Adam and Eve had that perfect trust in God, and God delighted in their trust. I can imagine God when He was creating the earth thinking in His heart, Oh Eve is gonna love this! She’s gonna love it, she’s gonna love it! It’s so juicy, and fresh! It’s sweet and satisfying. The peach! I’ll put a little fuzz on its skin; I’ll make it yellow, red, pink, and orange, and in the middle of it I’ll put the power for it to create more of itself! Hmmm…I’ll put it on a tree! Eve is going to love this! Oh, and Adam, Adam…I’m going to form him with my own hands…Adam. I’m going to give him the perfect gift. He’ll delight in it, the passion of men, Eve, woman. Read Genesis 2:22-24 (God makes Eve). Adam’s gonna love it, he’s going to love her! I’ve made everything perfect so that Adam and Eve will delight in Me because I delight in them! Genesis 2:25 makes the point that they were naked but not ashamed. They had no reason to find fault, because everything that God had done for them was good, and therefore they had perfect trust in Him.