"Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat it you will surely die.” (Gen 2: 15-17)

Well, there it is, Adam had barely shaken the dust off his clay made body and Monty Hall was calling him front and center to choose door #1 or door #2 or door #3. What’s it gonna be, Adam?

Of course we know that Adam chose to open the wrong door and spilled hell all over creation. That first choice has been followed by how many umpteen gazillion choices of bazillions of people? Choice is a constant of life.

Why did God allow choice? For love’s sake. To love cannot exist without being able to choose not to love. So He provided us with the blessings of choice and yes, the curse of it as well.

God also placed choice in our lives because man was made in His image. And everywhere throughout Scripture we see our Creator making choices. He chose Noah, Abram, Moses, David and Solomon. He chose nations and leaders and times - “To everything there is a season.” Our God is a God of choice and we have been created to be a people free to choose. God is pro-choice and mankind is to be pro-choice as well.

One thing though, and we’ve touched on it just a smidge already - when Adam was gifted with the freedom to choose, it came with a promise - the promise of consequences. The word “consequence” was added to the dictionary the second he and his help-mate bit into the fruit and brushed off the Hand of Him who had fed them life.

Have you ever tried to imagine what it must have been like for Adam and Eve as they had to walk away from their home? With each step their view of the perfect garden diminished and death became ever clearer. Have you ever tried to imagine their Creator in His grief watching them leave? Adam and Eve made the wrong choice.

Next time: God is Pro-Life