Not One Without the Other

 I read a book this week set back in Bible times and a Jewish ritual was described that caught my attention and stirred  my thoughts .

 When the Jews celebrated  the Passover meal, important in the meal besides the roasted lamb,  were the herbs maror and haroset.

Let me quote from the book.

              "The maror, or bitter herbs, always made my nose and eyes run . But the bitterness made everything else taste sweeter. Papa said maror helped God's people recall how bitter life had been for their ancestors as slaves. Maybe I needed to remember that life was never meant to be heaven on earth. Why would anyone seek heaven if it were? 

The opposite of the maror,  haroset, was so sweet that after one taste , everything else seemed more bitter. Papa said haroset reminded us of the sweetness of the promised Messiah love and freedom."

 I thought about the relationship between sweet and bitter, between good and evil.

Can we truly appreciate good if we have not experienced the opposite?

We take for granted the things that are without question.. 

Have you ever appreciated  how your knees move and bend without effort , unless you, like me, have had your knees lose that ability!?

Until the 'good' things in our life are threatened or lost , we do not appreciate them. Until something comes at a cost, we do not appreciate its value.

Without sorrow, is there joy? 

Without sickness do we appreciate health? 

Without darkness, do we love the light?

Without pain, are we grateful for the lack of it?

Without turmoil, do we appreciate peace? 

Without lack , do we appreciate plenty?

Without loneliness, do we appreciate fellowship?

Without feeling lost , are we grateful for being found?

Without cold, do we appreciate warmth?

Without seeing hate , or being judged or rejected, do we value being loved?

Without being hungry, are we grateful for food?

Without seeing death, would we value life?

You could add to the above list, but I'm sure you see how the bitterness of life sweetens the rest of it!!

 

I thought of the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. I often wondered, as you may have, why God put the tree there, when He knew Adam and Eve would eat of it and bring sin and evil into the world.

 God is love, and He is good, and nothing happens that He does not know.

We tend to understand good and evil in the extreme, but what if we define evil as "everything that is not good"? 
And is that not true? Is sickness, sorrow, suffering, hunger, pain, darkness good? Is it of God? No, of course not, so we can define anything not of God as  'evil', the opposite of 'good'.

What did eating of the tree of good and evil give Adam and Eve? Did it give them divine wisdom as Satan promised?  No, we see that it didn't, which is clear if we just keep reading man's story.

 Adam and Eve in the garden experienced only the good..Everything was perfect. Were they happy? Yes, I'm sure they were, but were they able to appreciate it? Recognize how blessed they were? Know how good God was?  No, they didn't. After they ate of the tree, they did not trust in God's goodness - they tried to hide from Him. 
God in creating man wanted more than creatures living in a perfect environment taking it for granted.

He wanted a people who had learned to know Him, had chosen Him freely,  who knew He was 'good' and from full hearts worship Him. 

We wish for 'heaven on earth' , but we were not created to live on this earth. God had much more in mind when He thought to create man. We were created "in His image" which includes the ability to know what is good and choose it. 

So even though God knew that Adam and Eve would eat of the tree  He knew that if they ate of it , His plan and purpose for man would be accomplished.

 My granddaughter recently had her first child. In the hospital the nurse needed a blood sample from the baby that involved pricking her little heel, causing her to cry. My granddaughter burst into tears, and when they later needed another sample , she sobbed and left the hospital room, telling her husband to deal with it 
If we weep for the pain of our children, necessary though it be , don't you think God wept for Adam and Eve and weeps for you and me?
We see  so many passages in scripture that express God's compassion toward us.

( see Isaiah 30:18, Lamentations 3:22,23, Psalm 123:3) 

Compared to eternity, this earthly life is comparable to one grain of sand in an ocean of sand.

God created us to live forever with Him on a perfect new earth and He wants  people who are wise in understanding what is good and able to appreciate it. He wants a people that He can intimately fellowship with and enjoy. 

That can happen only if we are trained in this short earthly life. Having experienced 'evil' the joys of eternity with Him will be ever so much sweeter, and, unlike Adam  and Eve, we will not be tempted to choose 'evil'.

 God truly does all things well. Can we do other than trust Him with all our heart? And give Him all glory and praise?