The Night Before   Sunday, February 02, 2003

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I looked at the temperature today and figured that if I stayed inside on such a nice day, I must have fallen out of the stupid tree and hit a few branches on the way down. So I head off to the Appalachian Trial to do some hiking. I hiked about a mile and sat down by the river and looked at all the sites.

 

I was praying, spending time with God, and just enjoying myself when somehow the woods across the river reminded me of the Garden of Eden. I thought of how God would come down in the cool of the evening and chat with Adam and Eve. How He would come down and ask how their day was, what they were thinking, what they had discovered and just love on them. 

Then I got to thinking about the night before they fell into sin. How it must have hurt God to say goodnight that evening. How He must have wanted to just snag them up and take them to Heaven right then. But that would ruin what He created us for. He wanted them, and us, just to love Him because they wanted to. To do that, they had to choose between Him and themselves. 

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He knew the choice they would make to sin. He knew the pain and agony it would bring. Yet, He left them there because He already had a plan to restore us. So they sinned, He died on a cross, and He offers us salvation to restore us to friendship with Him. He's an awesome God...love on Him this week!