Darkness Reveals Dust In The Light
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The other day I'm waiting for my Chinese food to take home and I notice something.
The front door to the restaurant was open that day, it is usually closed.
It was a warm day with a slight breeze coming from the ocean, the breeze entering the restaurant.
Now that it is winter, the sun's position relative to the horizon is much lower in the mid afternoons.
I am sitting near the front door where I am able to see across and through the sun's rays coming directly into the restaurant whose interior is not as bright as the outside.
The darker background beyond the rays allows for observation of many particles and things blown in with the breeze.
I was able to 'see' what is usually unseen.
The light usually saturates our surroundings when we're outside, so the small stuff goes widely unnoticed...while what is noticeable is made clearer and detailed.
I began to think of several things.
I wondered if I should cover my nose and mouth...but quickly realized this is a constant occurrence not only outside, but indoors as well; the breathing in of what is unwelcome.
The air is not void of 'things'.
I began to ponder the body's natural filtration system; the hairs in the nose and other mechanisms all the way into the lungs and beyond.
I thought about how some people nowadays walk around with masks on, like doctors do during surgery.
One day, unless pollution of particulates and the burning of things harmful is not curbed, we may all be walking around as if walking in outer-space.
Yet, this is the natural life, the natural world, our bodies already prepared to deal with this reality and the realities of this world...so long as they naturally occur, I say.
People in desert areas breathe in sand particulates constantly, as those living in whichever environment are always inhaling what that natural environment puts out.
My thoughts then drift beyond the physical pondering, towards things well beyond and spirit.
Can one know what is not good if the 'not good' did not exist?
In other words: would we know what was 'wrong' without having examples defining the wrong?
Perhaps this is why darkness exists...so we may clearly differentiate the dark from the light, and also appreciate the light for what it is...and beware of the dark for what it is.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man He had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...
...The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”...
...Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
- Genesis 2: 8-9, 15-17, 25We find the first "do not" for man here...and the certainty of a consequence for its disobedience.
Innocence is a state of tranquility, worry free, no stress.
There is no desire for things unknown and unattainable.
The first salesman was darkness...selling man something man didn't need, but somehow convinced man they wanted it.
The first idea to be sold was that one could be like God.
The first lie voiced to man; that God did not mean what He said or was being insincere.
The first slight of hand dazzling man; that God was hiding something desirable.
God desired prevention, His motive pure, His aim protection, His reasoning peace of heart and mind.
God created all things free, with patterns according to their nature, and the gift of freedom in choice (to choose God or not, to obey or not) is part of the responsibility of life.
Yet in innocence with the absence of 'wrong', is there a choice to do 'wrong' when, again, wrong is unknown or not perceived as such?
The child's mind knows only what is taught, the child's heart only what is experienced.
This is where we find the inceptions of good and bad in society and cultures at large...repeated throughout generations.
It is in the home, in one's own private garden, where seeds of love or hate are sown.
Thus why Adam and his wife were naked and didn't sense anything 'wrong' or shameful.
It was not 'wrong' to be naked for this man and woman.
The wrong that came was the landslide of thoughts accompanying doubt-laced questions and suspicions emanating from knowledge without understanding nor wisdom.
Innocence perverted.
Read how an intriguing idea was sold to naiveté and innocence, as something desirable, yet unattainable.
Read how a false promise was mentioned very close to what was initially stated.
Read how a doubt-laced question was asked to make way for a stark contradiction in order to claim a reason to be suspicious:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
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. 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.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”...
...Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which He had been taken.
- Genesis 3: 1-11, 20-23Oh the landslide of thoughts that accompanied the knowledge of good and evil.
The latter always attempts to overwhelm the former.
It is this attempt that assists darkness to compel obscurity of God's Word.
Being like God, as in equal footing with the Creator and Author of Life, is unattainable for the created.
Can the things made by man's hands compare to the man?
Only when all things are not considered, only when all of reality is parceled out into cubits of closed thinking.
Although the subjects reflect the Majesty in many ways, the King is One.
While the subjects may be princes, and perhaps 'kings' in a praiseworthy way, they do not occupy the place nor position of the Majesty.
All things besides God are created...yet people can be, as we read about the drama in the garden, easily confused and led to believe other such things.
Man is not God, but God can and did become a man for the sake of mankind finding their way back to the state of innocence in the garden.
Although it is written 'you are gods' what immediately follows that declaration is quite the weight of extreme responsibility for the gods:
God presides in the great assembly;
He renders judgment among the “gods”:
“How long will you defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the weak and the fatherless;
uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
“The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
“I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
But you will die like mere mortals;
you will fall like every other ruler.”
Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
for all the nations are Your inheritance.
- Psalm 82Notice that although man is endowed with great gifts, with relative power and influence over the rest of creation (and other men), the 'power' of a 'god' overwhelms their good sense.
The taste of relative and temporal power corrupts the hearts of those not heaven-bound / heaven-sent.
The very temptation that overwhelmed the angel of light that became the demon darkness eternal was peddled to man as something desired.
Only the Creator can wholly resist darkness, sin's temptations, lies and corruption.
Although we can reason as to why God allowed the fall of man to transpire, we can be assured that His grace is greater than temptation's beguiling nature.
Although sin entered the world prior to the drama in the garden, His love reigns over both sin and its consequence; death.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the One to come.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the One man, Yeshua Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One man, Yeshua Christ!
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One man the many will be made righteous.
- Romans 5: 12-19May we find strength in Him who repaired and redeemed us...and may we praise His Holy Name: Yeshua!
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