Ive been , well, praying for knowledge and wisdom lately, maybe I should be praying for God to fix everything, but I havent, asking for knowledge and wisdom just feels right. However, as a result of these prayers, there has been a LOT thrown at me to absorb. A lot of it pretty deep and difficult for me understand (and definitely not FB material) but this simple eye-opener was a huge one for me yesterday. It all started as a routine thing that you have to deal with when you have livestock.... someone drives up to the house, you got a horse out on the road... instant thought, great, but it is what it is and you go to deal with it. The Cattle Guard These horses out here have it pretty dang good. Theyve got large pastures to graze in, the mares are never asked to work, theyre sheltered and fed every night.... you get the picture, pretty comfy life. So after catching and retuning this ONE repeat offender to the pasture and heading back up to the house, I start thinking.... Why does she jump that cattle guard? Why her, not the others. What is her reasoning, theres not more grass, its scary, trucks honking at you, unfamiliar, youre separated from your herd, the anxiety sets in....why does she do this? She has literally free run of the pasture, the only thing she is NOT supposed to do it go over than one 10 foot wide barrier called a cattle guard. Before, I woulda just blown it off, and moved on with my day, but for some reason, it kept bugging me, the question wouldnt go away. Then, as all the strange things that have been happening lately, a thought popped into my head. Why do WE do things, that were not supposed to? Things we know dont result in good, but rather put us in negative situations where we experience anxiety and fear. Then I thought, funny, that cattle guard is kinda like The Tree in the Garden of Eden, that bay is kinda like Adam and Eve. (hang on with me here.... I know its a strange analogy) God gave Adam and Eve the most perfect life, they wanted for nothing, feared nothing, lived with him and literally were able to visit with him, because they were without sin, so they could. How magnificent that must have been. (Im not saying the front mare pasture is the garden of eden, but in horse terms, it has to come close) Only ONE RULE: Dont Eat from that tree. Only ONE RULE: Dont go over that cattle guard. So, I start researching the tree of knowledge.... and heres what was revealed through the research: The Tree Let us begin by describing the Tree, formally known as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The word for knowledge, daat, is used later to describe the marital union between Adam and Eve. Therefore an alternative translation might be: the Tree of Union Between Good and Evil. And this is the crux of the matter: When God created the world, He clearly defined right from wrong. All moral issues were objective and not subjective. There was one, obvious, absolute morality. True, one could choose to do the wrong thing, but that choice was clear. Yet God did create one place of moral confusion: the Tree. Eating from the Tree would actually internalize a confusion between right and wrong. Avoiding this fate was Adam and Eves one RULE to observe. And were they to refrain from eating -- i.e. from entering that state of confusion -- the world would have remained paradise. but they ate the apple (well skip the snake, Eve, Adam, temptation, all of that) they ate the apple. the bay jumped the cattle guard. Since that fateful snack, weve internalized confusion about what is good and evil, and we battle it every day. Not Gods original hope, however, being all-knowing, he certainly was not surprised when they disobeyed. I used to think of it like when the kids ask me why? when I direct them to do or dont do something.... that because I told you so is enough. And maybe it should be, but does it hurt to explain to them that Im protecting them or teaching them. God didnt explain why to Adam and Eve when he said Not THAT tree, but I think he wants us to individually figure out the why. Yes, He told us so, and we SHOULD just obey, but we dont. THen we suffer the consequences. Because we dont just obey all the time, we have forever been cursed to deal with the difference between right and wrong. We have to search for the truth, seek it earnestly from Him, it is not just known instinctively as it was before that ill-fated snack .....Who woulda thought a strong-willed bay mare jumping a cattle guard would lead me to learn so much about ourselves: Good, Evil and our challenge to decipher between the two and to make the right decisions. There is only one way to do that now, to earnestly seek His will.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:34:23 +0000