Scripture: Genesis 3:6-7
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, sovaldi sale and also desirable for gaining wisdom, prescription she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, sovaldi who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Thought for the Day:  God tells Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This of course begs the question, “Why put the tree in the garden in the first place?” It’s like putting a chocolate cake in front of a two-year-old and telling him or her not to touch it. We all know how that works out.

If we consider that the Genesis story was written as a sort of psychoanalysis of our deepest terrors though, then things start to make more sense. As we gain knowledge and wisdom, all our flaws and blemishes are revealed to us. If we’re contemplative people, we consider how to deal with our issues, or perhaps even realize that there are no issues to deal with in the first place—after all, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being naked, with baring our souls to each other. That sort of naked truth is just really, really scary.

It’s also important to know that when Genesis was written—sometime in the 4^th Century BCE, the ancient Israelites were a collection of tribes around Jerusalem, surrounded by the much more powerful Persian empire. The Israelites lived under constant threat of invasion and extermination, so their terror was quite real, and they had to bare their souls to each other and God to maintain their lifestyle. They had to be confident about their belief in One supreme, fundamental deity, when all other civilizations worshipped a pantheon of Gods.

But perhaps most importantly, as the Jewish people worked out their origin story, they discovered a God of salvation and forgiveness. Where the gods of the Persians enabled the royalty and gave them the right to enslave everyone else, the Genesis story liberates all people—it opens our eyes to the truth that even if we’re not living in the garden, God is with each and every one of us. We are all free, and nobody has the right to enslave us. That basic right of freedom includes freeing ourselves from the nightmares we create in our own minds.

Prayer: Free us from the mental, physical and social chains that continue to blind us to the truth of the universe: You are our holy God, and You are with us, everyone. Amen.