On My Own

Just like most toddlers in the world Madisyn is expressing herself and exploring her boundaries in what the world affectionately calls the “terrible 2’s”. Currently we are caught in a terrible conundrum, a catch 22. Since she is exploring all the things that she can and can’t do and get away with we are torn with whether or not we should tell her ahead of time when we think she is about to do something.

For, example there has been occasion where we have noticed that she holds water in her mouth instead of swallowing it. Sometimes when she does that she is simply playing with it in her mouth, but there has been times when has then taken that mouth full of water and emptied it into the play sink in the girls playroom. So do you tell her to swallow it? Do you firmly remind her ahead of time to not spit it out before she does it so that she knows she isn’t supposed to? But if you do tell her not to spit it out are you then putting the idea in her head not to spit it out? If she gets that idea in her head is she able to resist the temptation to do it?

Honestly, right now it is a roll of the dice. Sometimes she listens and other times the temptation is too great. Like when I saw her approaching one of our cats and I had no idea if she was going to pet him or tackle him. Catch 22.

The other lovely part of a 2 year old is the fact that she wants to do things on her own and she wants her own everything. She wants to be very independent of her parents and sister as long as it is of benefit to her.

To be completely honest, to a degree do we really ever fully grow out of this way of thinking and acting? Do we not want to be independent free thinkers? Don’t we want to test our limits and the limits of our family and society? Sometimes that can be good and sometimes that can be bad. But I think no matter how old we are we still have a tendency to want to do things on our own and in our own way.

Such was the way with Adam and Eve. Now that Adam had a companion and partner in the world to care for the Garden of Eden and everything living in it, all seemed to be going well. We often think of and imagine life in the garden as perfect and a paradise. Yet it seems very clear in the story that as much as we want to imagine everything as perfect in the garden, there is an inkling that human beings have always had this desire to step away from what is maybe normal and acceptable and to try to push the bounds. In fact, in verse 6 we see that the woman looks at the food and the NRSV tells us it was a “delight” to her eyes. The Hebrew word is ‘ta’avah’ and almost 50% of the time the word is translated into English the word used is desirable. And the word as desire several words later can also be translated as coveted. I bring these Hebrew words up as a way for us to see the strong emotions associated with looking at this fruit.

So I ask again, are we, like Adam and Eve, really any different in our desire to want something that we think would be a benefit to us? Do we not reason out an excuse to do something that we might not normally do, or even know is wrong in order to fulfill that desire of our eyes or heart? I have no idea why Madisyn wants to tackle and lay on our cats, and God bless them for taking it like champs, but she giggles as she makes the pursuit to capture them.

So if this feeling that exists in toddlers and adults alike, which also existed in both man and woman in this perfect garden, I wonder if this story is less about our fall, but more of a story about the human condition. A pursuit of something more and possibly different than what we currently have in our lives. Sometimes that pursuit is a good thing and sometimes that pursuit is a bad thing.

When we pursue peace and justice in the world because that is something that is sadly absent from it, then our desire for something more is a powerful force that does prove to us what we hear in Genesis 1:27 that we were created in the image of God. Our desire to provide equality for all people because of that inherent image of God we all share is another positive desire for more. When we look around the world and we try to fill our lives with the things other humans have created and then we realize it is not enough, and that it will never fill the void that rests inside of us. When we then pursue discover that hole we have is a relationship with the One who’s image we share, then we are using that pushing of boundaries to fill our lives with the biggest blessing and gift we could ever find through work and wealth.

It is through that gift of a relationship with God that we have found in Christ Jesus which Paul talks about so well in Romans 5:12-21. Our human nature tends to get in the way of life, so God stepped in and sent us Jesus to show us there was another way. The entire Bible is the story of God’s unending pursuit to bring us into a full and complete relationship with the divine. And as I just stated Jesus is that final step. It is God’s last step in a divine plan to bring us back into a right relationship with God even if we can’t always keep our minds and eyes from looking at other possibilities in this life.

Toddlers, adults, Adam and Eve, we haven’t really ever changed, but neither has God. God has relentlessly pursued a relationship with us. Thanks be to God for sticking with us for generations of us pursuing things other than God, and God never giving up on that love for the ones whom God created in the image of God. Amen.