“Did God say….” is the crafty question that
gets Adam and Eve to doubt God’s goodness despite the fact that they live in
paradise. On the other hand you could read the story as the ultimate set up.
What was God thinking? You don’t populate paradise with naive naked people, a
“crafty” serpent and a tree in the middle of the garden that was “good for
food, a delight to the eyes and desired for making one wise” that btw you can’t
touch. But if you read the story after the fact (as I do) you are not as concerned
with the details as you are with the truth it tells. Given paradise we would
want a little bit more. Maybe that is the fatal flaw of creation. In the
beginning it is God who is not satisfied. Moving through the shapeless void
God’s spirit sweeps over the darkness of the deep and out of God’s infinite
imagination God calls forth creation culminating in a creature that is equally
restless. “In the image of God humankind was created…” (Genesis 1:27) So does
God touch the untouchable by eating the forbidden fruit by creating creatures
capable of breathtaking beauty and equally breath-stealing cruelty? Maybe I've
told too much of the truth that I see in this story but then I think that God
is willing to know us better than we are willing to know ourselves. Given
paradise God would give it up to touch us.
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