How Do You Like Them Apples???

We made new ornaments last night for our Jesse Tree. Our Bible reading was the fall of man. Don't you wonder sometimes why God ever bothered to create humans? I do not mean to be disrespectful. All I am saying is that all of creation obeys the commands given to them. Except for us.

It always strikes me as so significant when reading this that they were told they do lots of things: Be fruitful and multiply (don't you wonder how that was BEFORE the punishment of painful childbirth???), rule over the animals, eat anything except that fruit. They walked WITH God!!! But a crafty serpent comes along.... and who do they listen to??? The serpent!!! Wow! Who in their right mind would do such a thing?? I would never go along with someone who tried to get me to go against God. Oh, wait a minute..... I do that. Sometimes there is not even a crafty serpent leading me astray. I choose to do things, like be in front of the computer instead of reading my Bible. Or maybe I read my Bible, but then do not apply what it says. Maybe I am just proud. I think to myself, oh I would never do that when I hear about someone else's fall. (Sometimes as I am falling) I am especially judgmental against unruly kids. I think, "if they were better parents, their kids would not be little maniacs". OK, sometimes that is true, but it is just as true that my kids are not perfect well-behaved little angels all the time. They are flawed just like the rest of us.

Something struck me as significant in two of the ornaments. Look closely at Samuel's:

Ok, I know he is a happy go lucky five year old who would draw a smile on Hitler. But seeing a smile on the face of sin made me really think. How many times do we (I) see something that we know is not good, but we go along with it anyway. We say, oh it is not that bad. Think about this: how many times at Halloween do we see kids dressed as "good" witches? How often, at Valentine's Day especially, do we see "cute little devils"? We add cuteness and tolerance to things that God considers abominations. Which brings to my original question of why did God create us again?

Now take a look at Nathaniel's picture:

He did not add any kind of face at all to his snake. The anonymous sin. The Bible tells us that few are believers. The Barna Research group with all of their polls tells us the same thing. If we really open up our eyes and see the way that people carry themselves we would see that the majority of the people in the world are going to go to hell when they die. Do we care? I mean really care? When we see a thug on the street do we pray for that thug or just hold our purse a little tighter? When we see a teenager acting like a hoodlum do we intercede on behalf that teen or do we thank God that OUR kids don't act like that?? Do we think of these people as actual people, or just nameless faceless masses?

It can be very humbling to start examining myself about my own sins. Painful, too. I wonder why God created me. Why would He save me? Some things are just out of my league. I will never have the answers. I am ok with that, because I know that God DOES have all the answers.