I think that we all, at one point in life, wondered about this: Why didn’t God create man NOT with a free will – why are things so much more complicated now, since there’s God and there’s Satan, and we have to choose one of them? If God would have just made us with a will that would automatically choose Him, or would just be one with Him, things would be so much simpler.
But God is not like us in this respect: God is great, and His greatness is expressed in the fact that He does not FORCE us to choose Him or be one with Him. When God created man, He placed him in the garden of Eden in front of two trees – clearly indicating that besides Him as the source of life (the tree of life) there was another source – death (as the final result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil).
If God would not be what He is, He would have placed us ONLY in front of the tree of life, so that we would have no choice but God. Yet He “risked everything” by giving us a choice.
We all know that Adam took of the wrong tree – strangely enough, it was not “the tree of death”, but it was a tree pleasant to the sight and ready to give man understanding…. it was the tree of the knowledge of GOOD (good first, not evil) and evil. It looks good, it gives you knowledge, you will know GOOD so that you will reject EVIL…. – there are so many “good” things about this tree. But God offers just one simple thing: LIFE.
If we choose God, if we turn to Him and attach ourselves to Him, we get life, the divine life. And this life accomplishes God’s purpose and fulfills the meaning of our human life. But if we choose the other tree – which is so clearly abundantly available in all the media, in the world, morality, ethics, even in religion – then we will KNOW and we will DIE.
Knowledge by itself – unless it is the knowledge of God – leads us to independence from God and eventually death. And since Adam chose this other tree, in him we all have died and we are born to die – we are dying every day. That’s why we need to repent, turn to God, choose life that we may live forever in this oneness with God. Today, I want to choose God!
