GUILELESS
My mind keeps thinking of the beginning… Wondering about the time before sin… Before the perfect became cursed. Before love knew hatred… Before peace knew war… Before the child became orphaned.
Adam and Eve had nothing between them… Not even a stitch and God said his creation was good. They were guileless… which I looked up to check(!!) and I thought that’s very interesting….
Guileless
ˈɡʌɪlləs/
adjective
devoid of guile; innocent and without deception.
“his face, once so open and guileless”
synonyms: artless, ingenuous, open, honest, sincere, genuine, naive, natural, simple, childlike, innocent, unsophisticated, unworldly, unsuspicious, trustful, trusting;
They had no ulterior motive in their words…. They had no concept of deception… I love that they were child-like… They had trust, openness, love, companionship, awe and wonder…. Imagine being the very first…. The only two humans…!
Adam and Eve were naked… yeah I did write that, they were naked and God said regarding all of His creation that: It was good. Come again?? No, I’m not advocating going around naked…!! The important thing to remember here is before sin came in God didn’t clothe his children…. After the fall they found leaves to cover themselves with and then God spilled the first blood ever…. (Unless you read my Time blog Jesus has actually already died but that’s going a bit sci-fi!!) And this animal skin God has just made clothes his children…. There is now something very physical between Adam and Eve and them and God.
My point is this… God put in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and bad… Why was this a bad thing?? Why does God, who knows what is good…. Which we know because he calls his creation good, think that Adam and Eve should not know what the difference between good and bad is??
Sin, simply put is to disobey God… Adam and Eve did something they weren’t meant to, were told not to or there’d be consequences…. Death. But something they didn’t know would happen is they became judges. They could now grade good… And bad… They now tried to defend themselves and blame each other…. They looked at themselves and what God called good they called bad and tried to hide behind leaves.
Only God knows the heart of any man or woman…. God didn’t want you or me to be a judge….. Not of ourselves or anyone else… not to put a grade on the worth of a person…especially not by our standards… Who’s trained or qualified me for that job?? Did I make a person?? Did I breathe life into a man or woman?? Did I fashion the limbs and mould the contours of a face…? Did I embed a unique code into the very depths of a living being?? There’s a big fat NO for all of these and yet I can so easily look at a person and think… they’re dumb, smart, boring, exciting, needy, independent, too fat, too thin, too ugly, too pretty, too poor, too rich,…woooah!! What a lonely person I could be if judgement rules me…. Instead of love, grace, kindness, patience… Guilelessness…childlikeness.
The more we become changed by His Spirit at work in us the less the outer layers of life matter and all that matters is that God has called us good…. Now covered by the spilt blood of Jesus. Anyone can critique something, a work of art, compare Picasso to Pollock but the value of anything is only measured by what someone is willing to pay… Not only did God create us he also paid the highest price, Jesus who is fully God and fully man died for you and me… He values us that much!!
For God so loved the world he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
James 4:12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbour? Luke 16:15
“You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your heart, what people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.” 1 Corinthians2:11
No one can a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can no God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.
Tracy Elson
