"Pleasing"

"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." -  Genesis 3:6 (NIV)

I love driving past the local Chevrolet dealership here in Roanoke.  I have been an admirer of the Chevrolet corvettes for years.  I love to cruise past the dealership and look at the 'vettes all lined up, which seemingly to call out, "Pick me!  Take me home."  And much like the child who cannot take the candy, the toy, or the new pet home, I, too, am forced to keep moving along my way without that nice 'vette.

No problem.  I am a realist.  I can say in most certainty that I will never have one.  Things out of reach almost always never pose a problem for us.  Shrug it off.  No big deal.  But, what about the things within our grasp?  It is hard to shrug those things off.  And that is where things can get a little complicated.

In the story of Adam and Eve, recorded in the opening chapters of Genesis, we are shown a portrait of a gracious God who has created mankind "in his image" (1:27) for intimate fellowship with himself.  The Lord planted a garden, named Eden, and gave man dominion over the created order (1:28).  But there were boundaries.  God would provide everything Adam and Eve could ever imagine, but God reserved the right to draw parameters, namely the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:17).  For a while, all was well.

Then one day, Eve got into a theological debate with a serpent.  I do not know how long this debate lasted, but things changed.  Imagine that one day, your whole world revolves around the Creator, God.  Then, you find yourself here; your ears listening, not to God, but to a serpent; your eyes, not on the Creator, but on fruit.  The Bible says in Genesis 3:6 that the fruit was "pleasing to the eye".  "Pleasing", "tah-av-aw" in Hebrew, means to lust or covet, a desire of the heart.  So this was more than just a simple, "Ooooo, pretty fruit!"  It was more of "Got to have it!"

Think about that for a minute.  With God, one gets everything their hearts can imagine, within the framework of submitting to the Creator.  But, without God, we allow the lure of being our own gods to transform us into lustful, covetous creatures seeking our own pleasure.  It is little wonder that Jesus would begin his ministry in the wilderness, "correcting" the decision of Adam and Eve.  Jesus resists the devil by keeping what really mattered before him (Matthew 4:1 - 11).  In Jesus we are reminded that, whatever pleasures this life affords, God can abundantly give at his discretion.  We also are reminded that it is not worth trading for self-fulfillment.

So, we are then reminded why we need the season of Lent.  We are reminded why we need a Savior.  Left to ourselves, we choose us.  Jesus comes to bring us back to the Father.  In this journey through Lent, may we follow in the steps of Jesus.  In this journey, may we be drawn closer to the heart of the Father.  May we find him to be everything what we could never be on our own.  Lusting after 'vettes is not my problem.  Wanting to be my own god?  Yeah, that's a problem.