Adam And Eve, Continued

MON., SEPT. 13, 1982, 5:33 AM
FARM, STUDY

You have read over that teaching of last month on Adam and Eve and the Garden, the one you will use in your class next week. I say at the end that I shall continue the story another day. Why not today? Oh, I shall make some comment on your latest hurt, which, or course, is a new opportunity for healing. Listen and hear, o son.

In My previous teaching I used the example of marriage and the human family. (Yes, put the other one away for now; it confuses your hearing when you have to be concerned about “your mind or Mine.”) Now I shall add that marriage or family would not have been necessary if one or both had remained obedient and “in the Garden”. Oh, I could have instituted it and commanded it, but it would not have seemed necessary. And, for all of its faults and shortcomings, marriage is a relationship of growth and potential strength… one I like.

Isn’t it interesting that I can say I like “things” that developed out of disobedience? Many necessities for the special growth process that I wanted the earth to be developed because the Garden was no longer available. If I had been truly offended by the events as they transpired, as I seemed to be at the time of punishment, I could have abandoned them all completely “on the outside.” You read, of course, that I didn’t, and, as Jesus, I told a parable, later, of the father’s response to the prodigal son. One aspect of My nature is to dispense justice (or to let the law of karma work its way). Another is to show mercy (or to let the gift of grace ameliorate the effects of justice).

It would have been rather foolish to abandon My creation of earthly humans, in(to) which I had allowed immortal souls to dwell. You have given life and nurture to Matthew, but he has apparently abandoned your values and lives by others. Yet when he calls you welcome him and still profess your love for him… and accept his in relation to you. That desire and willingness on your part, as well as the initiative on his, comes from Me, and it was first manifested “outside the Garden.”

The disobedience brought about cause and effect, one manifestation of which is your current injury. The fruit seemed to be a desirable piece of food, with some promise of special knowledge also added… and maybe God wouldn’t be as “hard-nosed” as He said He would be. (And I wasn’t for I had said that if they ate of it they would surely die… that was a bit severe.) The volleyball game yesterday was something to which you had looked forward. You knew there was a chance for injury, and then after the first small “pull” you knew that the danger definitely was there, but you took the chance. You lost. And now you hurt and must go through a slow healing process again. As you become aware of the things you now cannot do without pain you may well question the worth of the game and the chance. Adam and Eve certainly did. But you cannot “run the day over again” and make a different choice. Nor could they.