Oh, Eve . . .

First of all, I must confess that more than once I have uttered words blaming Adam and Eve for their poor choice that landed us in this mess.

In doing the Bible in a year plan on YouVersion -- awesome resource, by the way . . . can be downloaded to your phone as well with all kinds of different reading plans -- I am currently in the midst of Leviticus and all the laws pertaining to ordination of the priests and sacrifices. One might say that I'm knee deep in blood and guts, along with a few other things. And one would be right, figuratively speaking. For whatever reason -- perhaps the fact that I don't eat red meat and/or the fact that I have never been a farmer, with the exception of our one year stint living out in the county ... which was pretty much limited to waking up and finding a cow in our front yard and getting highly annoyed with the neighboring rooster's broken alarm clock (3 pm crowing, really??)-- I am having a hard time stomaching some of the more graphic details. Kind of like when my husband tries to sneak the giblets into the stuffing at Thanksgiving (and for those of you who think that's normal, stop it!! I beg you.). Or the time when my sister and I were young and our mom decided to serve liver for dinner, disguised as "beef nuggets." Ah, the stomach turns just thinking about it. Quite frankly, it is a relief to move on to the New Testament and Psalms. And drink my marvelously-red-meat-free Vanilla Chai soy protein drink.

Which I think is the point (moving on to New Testament, that is, not my drink). Adam and Eve did live in perfection - no sin, no death, no blood and guts, clothing-challenged, and in direct fellowship with God, who walked with them in the garden. And they screwed up.  MAJORLY.  It is always easy to point fingers and blame the first couple for the world's ills, until I wonder if I would have chosen any differently. Hindsight is an awesome thing, and also provides many of us ample ammunition to attack others' decisions and choices. I'm quite relieved that God has no need of hindsight; rather, in His foresight/wisdom/omniscience/mercy, God provided a path back to the garden of perfection. The path is messy and bloody and difficult and painful, because we are still walking in this world. But ALL of the Bible points to Jesus, who loved us enough to become our bloody sacrifice once and for all, and who loves us so much that he will walk the road with us to the end.

And the end is not the end, but the beginning of things restored - a new heaven and a new earth. I do so love grand, epic stories, and being one character woven into the tapestry of THE grand, epic story ... well, it's actually incomprehensible. Whether viewed in hindsight, foresight, or now sight, GRACE is AMAZING.