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We learn from the apostle John that God is love. In creation God created Adam and Eve so that He could love them. He did not need us, but He desired to bring all humanity into existence just so that He could love us. He also desires us to love Him back and made us in His image and His likeness.   He created you just so He could love you.

Adam and Eve knew this when they were created. They lived in perfect harmony with God and all creation. They knew who they were. They knew that they were God’s children and understood how deeply they were loved. They even knew they were made for love and that their entire purpose in life was to love God and each other.

In Genesis we hear the story of how God created the entire world. His creation is ordered (laws of physics, math, chemistry, etc) and has a purpose (fulfill the design for which we are created, ie: a tree has a plan, birds have a plan).  He created the moon, the stars, and the sun, He created the land, the mountains, the sea, and all that filled them. God created everything there is on this earth and saw that it was good. The vastness of the ocean is good and teaches us about how infinite God is. We see God reflected in the majesty of the mountains, and we see the beauty of God written in each sunset. All of this, God saw as good. Then He created something - or someone - very good. He created man. The mountains, the sea, the entire world is nothing compared to God’s creation in man.  

Man, also has a purpose, to love, know and serve God.  When Adam and Eve looked around on all that God had made, they knew how valuable they were and how precious they were in the sight of God. Looking around they could see their dignity and identity as children of God. They knew their worth was incomparable to all other things in the sight of God. All that God had made was a gift addressed to them.

God gave everything to Adam and Eve and loved them as His children, and in return Adam and Eve gave their trust to God, loving Him in return. God spoke with them and was with them in the garden. Adam and Eve listened to God knowing everything He said was out of love for them.

Then, because of the whispering of the evil one, they started to question God and His love. We hear in Genesis that the serpent came to Eve and questioned her about God’s word. He says “Did God really say…?” The serpent, being Satan, is the “Prince of Lies,” the “Deceiver.” Satan starts to test Eve’s trust in God by testing her belief in God and the truth of what He says. God had told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden or they would die. Eve knew that God had said this but she started to question if she would really get hurt from eating this fruit. She saw that it was pleasing to the eye and desirable, so she ate it.  

We may sometimes ask, “What’s the big deal about this? All she did was eat some fruit.” But Eve did more than just eat some fruit. She did not follow God’s plan. She thought there was a better way than what God had asked of her. She ignored God’s word, even though it was the voice of a loving Father. 

As a result of Eve disobeying her Father and not trusting in His word, she did experience a death just as God had said. She experienced a death in her soul. Her soul was now ruptured, and she was no longer in perfect union with God. Her relationship with God as her Father had been severely damaged.

She also gave some of the apple to her husband, and Adam too, not trusting in God’s words, ate it. His relationship with God was also damaged. The perfect unity they once shared was destroyed, and he now felt a distance from God, so much so that he hid from God. Adam and Eve were embarrassed of the sin that they had committed against God, and they were ashamed of themselves.

This is how sin, turning away from God, entered the world.  Because we have free will, God risks that we will ignore his plan for us and choose our own way.  In their sin they said “God, I do not want to live by your laws. I want to make my own rule,” and when they said this, they rejected God. God does not force us to follow His rules. He does not force us to trust Him or love Him. He let Adam and Eve go from the Garden of Eden out into the wilderness where they could find their own way just as they had wanted. 

This is the beginning of our story of struggle with God. As a loving Father, God did not abandon Adam and Eve. He promised in Gn 3:15 that a savior would come, and God says, speaking to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” 

Here God tells us about a battle between Satan and mankind, not only all mankind, but especially the battle between Satan and Christ. The offspring of the woman that is specifically talked about here is Christ, the one who will strike the head of Satan, the one the one who will win in this battle over Satan. God promises us a Savior thousands of years before Jesus was even born. This passage is called the Protoevangelium.  

We then watched this video by Mike Schmitz - Does God make us with flaws?

What do these verses say about who created you and how you were created?  What do you think of the fact that God knew everything about you and what you would do before you were even born?  This doesn’t mean you don’t have free will; God is outside of time and knows everything we will choose. What difference can knowing this make you think about yourself and your actions each day?  

God created people in his image and likeness and saw creation as “very good.”  How well does this match up with how you see yourself and the world around you?  God gives us free will and risks we will reject him.  God cannot force us to love him or follow him.  However, once we allow him in our hearts, he can transform us into saints.  God created us to be originals, many die as photocopies because we are scared to fail.  Saints are not perfect – they are holy.

Remember that when we read about the life of Adam and Eve and all the Scriptures, we learn about ourselves. We learn about God’s plan for us and our relationship with Him. Just like Adam and Eve, we are called to be in the family of God. We are called to love Him and, because we are made in his image and likeness, this is what we were created for – to receive God’s love and love Him in return. We are more valuable to God than any other creation and all He created was to show us how much He loves us. God gives us so many good gifts. He gives us our lives, our families, our homes, our friends, and countless blessings, all because He loves us. We also learn about ourselves through Adam and Eve’s sin. How often do we fail to trust in God as our Father and choose to not follow His will for us? We often doubt that His way is the best way, and we are tempted to choose something else because it seems to be more fun or easier. 

When we do these things we become disconnected from God, hurt our relationship with Him, and separate ourselves from Him. With every sin, we push further away from Him, but just like Adam and Eve, that is not the end of our story. 

The best part of our similarity with Adam and Eve is that God does not abandon us! As we are God’s children, just like Adam and Eve, He promises us a Savior. He promises that, through Christ and His Church, we will be reunited with Him. Through the sacraments and meeting Christ in Reconciliation, we are forgiven for our sins and brought back into relationship with God. In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we are united even more intimately to Him.

Have a great week!

Joyfully, Christina