Good morning. Have you ever wondered why God chose to put the forbidden tree in the very heart of the garden of Eden? (Genesis 3:3) Why put it in the middle? Wouldn’t it have been much safer to put it off in the farthest corner? Or better yet maybe put a high mountain with sheer cliff faces on each side in a corner of the garden and put the forbidden tree on the very top of that! It would have been there, but it would have been unreachable and never a problem.
But no, God put the tree that bore the fruit forbidden for them to eat, or even to touch, right in the middle of His perfect garden. Why?
I can think of only one reason. God put that particular tree in the very middle of the garden so that Adam and Eve would need to choose. Every day they would need to decide, “is this a day to love, to honor, and to worship the Lord, or is this the day to betray Him and risk death”?
To be sure, Satan, the ancient enemy, hissed his words of confusion and temptation, but why were they given that choice at all? And if there had to be such a choice, why make it so…easy…for them to choose badly?
The answer is all about love. God did not want their love to be light or easy. God wanted them to have a choice, a genuine choice, to love Him, and to trust Him, and to commune with Him, and to worship Him. Without such a choice they would have been like birds in a cage or fish in an aquarium. With such a choice they could be one with Him and truly love Him. For love to be genuine it must be freely chosen.
God chose to love us, and God invites us to love Him.
We love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19
Worship well today as you make that choice to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might!
Vern