Why Plant that Tree Here?
Love is only real when there is a choice to love or not.
"I love you Greg."
Before we leave the story of the Garden of Eden, let us pause for a minute to think about why God placed the forbidden tree in the Garden. This tree caused all of our troubles. We have all been separated from God and dominated by sin because Adam and Eve ate from this tree. If God knew Adam and Eve would eat from the forbidden tree, why did He even put this tree in the Garden at all?
The answer to this question is to recognise that genuine love is based on choice.
I remember the day our college bought our first Apple laptop for one of our staff members. We were all excited about this new acquisition and wanted to share the experience of exploring this new laptop together. During this process of investigation, we discovered there was a facility that enabled the laptop to vocalise whatever we typed into the program. This became a source of great amusement as we gathered around the machine, typing in various statements and being amazed that the laptop repeated them back to us.
In the course of the proceedings, I typed the following words into the machine: “I love you, Greg.” This caused great amusement for us all as I pushed the button and the voice dutifully repeated the phrase, “I love you, Greg.” How great was this! A computer that loved me! To enhance the effect, I changed the voice from a male machine-sounding one to a more realistic female voice. This was fabulous. Each time I pushed the button, this woman told me she loved me. She did this for quite a while, but eventually, after hearing her repeatedly share her love for me each time I pushed the button, I began to question her sincerity!
She was only saying this because I typed this phrase into her program. She had no choice. Each time I pushed the button, she was only repeating what I typed. This was not love. It was a programmed response, and the poor “woman” had no real choice. Love is only real when there is a choice to love or not.
When God created man, He desired to make humans who would love Him from their own free choice. But this would not have been possible if God had not given Adam and Eve the opportunity to reject or disobey Him. This tree was a necessity to allow man to express free will.
It is essential, however, to understand that this was no cosmic experiment that God put in place to see if Adam and Eve would obey Him. While giving us free will had dire consequences for us, it also cost Him everything. It cost the life of His Son on the cross. But He considered this worth the cost because of His great love for us, and because of His desire that we freely love Him back.
The tree in the Garden allowed Adam and Eve to express free will.
The Father's motivation in creating you was love. You are alive today because He passionately loves you.
Further reading: Gen 2:15-17
This is an extract from my free book Knowing God as Father, which is available for download at Knowing God as Father.