Changing the Way Our Eyes See

As I was praying this morning, I had a feeling of gratitude come over me that was so strong, that I found myself in tears. I began to thank God for everything that I had noticed on my morning run. The way the wind felt on my skin, the blue of the sky, the smell of flowers in the air, how my feet felt as they hit the pavement, the beautiful worship music playing on my iPhone. I was overcome with gratitude and I suddenly wondered why it is that we (myself included) can’t just focus on all of the amazing things that God has given us? Why do we have this tendency to revert back to dwelling on the negative things, the things we want changed or fixed?

Suddenly God impressed upon me the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He shared with me that the fall from grace was actually in Eve seeing something in a way that she had not seen it before. Prior to eating from the forbidden tree, all she saw was the beauty around her. She saw all that God had provided, and it was good. She and Adam were naked. And yet it was not something that she even noticed. Her attention was drawn away from her flesh because she was admiring all that God had created for her. But once she ate from the tree, she began to notice that she was indeed, naked. And this nakedness was a turning in of the senses. It was a turning inward to notice what she DID NOT HAVE. She did not have clothes. And yet this was something that had never bothered her up until this point. Something that seemed to have completely escaped her attention.

When we talk about sin in the Garden of Eden, I believe what God wanted to share with me was that it was about much more than not following the commandment He set forth. I think what He wanted to say was that in eating of this forbidden fruit, there was an exposure to the flesh and to inward thinking and to a worldview that began to exclude all He had created. The focus suddenly shifted to what Eve noticed was lacking. I believe he wanted to show me that more than an action, it was a difference in sight that occurred during that time. Eve suddenly gained a different perspective -- one that could see the evil in the world when before she was unable to see it. It seems fitting that she ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Prior to this, she saw good. After this, it wasn't that she was now evil. It was that she now SAW evil. 

In this sense, they surely died. They were no longer able to cherish all they had, but now would be left with inward focus and a false belief system that made them feel that they were lacking. In this way, they truly were removed from God, because He created them to be whole, in gratitude...

For us now, I believe this means that we accept that our worldview has changed since that time. That now, we truly are faced with the knowledge of good and evil. That part of our job here is to evolve in order to see things from a heavenly perspective, rather than an earthly one. That we remind ourselves of all of the amazing beauty that God has created, even when our eyes 'see' something different. The closer we get to reverting back to seeing things the way that they were before we recognized evil, the closer we are to heaven.