I was just reading something very interesting and true. Imagine if Eve really knew God and understood how much he loved her, whenever Satan came around with his lies? Imagine how you would react if someone tried to tell you something awful about someone you knew very very well, in an attempt to get you to distrust them?
Eve might have twister her face in unbelief, trying to hold back her laughter. "Are you talking about God? The one who walks with us in the garden each night, who created all this for our enjoyment and who loves us more than anything. Are you saying he would lie to us because he doesn't want us to be like him? That is ridiculous and totally impossible" She probably would have walked away without giving it a second thought.
The issue was trust not obedience. If what God wanted was obedience, his instructions would have been more specific and his description of the consequences more precise. Their obedience would have come from self preservation not love. Whenever self is at the center of our decisions, love takes a backseat.
Notice also that God didn't interrupt Satan to correct the half-truths he was telling. God sees something valuable in our failures. It is redemptive for our soul. Our failures lead us away from our self striving and move us toward more trust in God. No doubt the father of the prodigal son, when reflecting on the money wasted and the damage done to his son's body, still knew it had to happen and was all worth it.
Many church planters discuss the importance and need of people "to love and to be loved, to know others and to be known." I agree this is very true of us as humans in general. I also think that some things in our "human nature" come from our "sin nature" but other parts of our "human nature" come from the God who created us. And I think that these "loving and knowing" needs come from Him. He wants to love us and know us. Not in the He knows everything way, but in the way we choose to share with Him, our openess, our desire to know Him, so that He can truly delight in us. He gave us the perfect example in having childen. We know and love our childen, but we want to know and love them as the people they are, not just because they are our kids.
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