And now for something completely (well, a little) different

She looked at him for a few moments before asking the question that was foremost in her heart.  “Why is it that there is so much sorrow come to those that seem not to deserve it, such as the folk at Rahoy?  Why they are almost starving through no fault of their own and, and the children die too easy!”

A solemn look came over his face, and he sighed.  John had entered just as she asked the question and he now turned to his son. “John answer the lassie if you would.” 

The boy blushed and began to stammer a reply.

Understanding that his son’s lack of clarity came not through lack of ability to answer the query but rather that, young as he was and despite their having been childhood friends he was overpowered by their visitor’s beauty.  He took pity on the lad. “Hush then John, pour us some more of that tea and then sit yourself down by the fire and listen.”

Then Norman Macleod took onto his knee a large well-thumbed Bible from its accustomed place on a table at his side.  This he opened carefully and then proceeded to read aloud:

“Genesis Ch. 2 v. 17, ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for on the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die’.”

He looked up at the two young people and smiled.  “As we all know, God made Adam and Eve to dwell in the Garden of Eden where every necessity for their life and happiness was provided.   In addition they were blessed with the gift of immortality, but with one condition; that they did not touch the fruit of one particular tree in the garden.  

God also gifted them ‘free will’ whereby they could choose whether to obey or disobey his request, thereby rendering their love, loyalty and obedience of greater value.   For is not love that is freely given more valuable than love that is given through coercion and enslavement?”

 The two young people sat listening to him quietly as he continued sagely.  “You both know the rest of the story but I will tell it anyway.  As time went on Adam and Eve grew discontented with the fact that the fruit from this one tree was denied them and, as is the case with us all, that which is forbidden becomes increasingly alluring. 

Satan came to talk to them, fanning their desire to consume of this fruit and thereby taste what it is to know good and evil.  The punishment for disobedience was death, but what did they know or understand of death, living as they did in the Haven that is the Garden of Eden? Eventually, as we know, temptation won over obedience and Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree.  

However death did not strike the moment that they ate the apple.  What they lost was their gift of immortality.

Now Adam and Eve would have to go out into the world of men and become mortal.   They had eaten of the forbidden fruit and now understood the difference between what was good and what was evil.  This loss of innocence meant they could no longer live in the Garden of Eden, no more could they walk there freely and enjoy the presence of God,” explained the old minister. “Sin had entered their soul and it was no longer pure. For them now to see God in all his Glory would be more than they could have endured.  Their ejection from the Garden of Eden was therefore not so much enacted as a punishment by a wrathful God, but a consequence of their actions.”

He went silent for a few moments as if contemplating anew the enormity of what their forebears had forsaken. Then he put down the Bible and continued more strongly. “If we were the perfect man we would understand the seasons and the mysteries of the earth, the sea and the heavens.  Have you not seen how even the animals know if a storm approaches,  how they know where the water is and when  fire consumes the forests, long before man; who is as if blind and deaf to all these things. 

Man is too caught up in the desires of his heart, or the desires of his loins to notice what is before him.  Man rushes through the world ruled not by God but by the cravings of his mind and his body.  His head and heart are full of his need to have, to gain, to maintain, that which he covets.  He will not listen when his body tells him what it needs, he chooses instead to attend to his desires; thus his mind and his body and his spirit become out of balance and he becomes sick. 

Think you that man would have sickness if he listened to what his body told him, if he could keep himself in balance, if he could subdue his loud and furious emotions, if he were able to keep his mind and body under subjection to the will of God.   However this is impossible for one who has eaten of the tree of knowledge. 

It is for this reason that evil things like famine, death, wars and sickness occur. 

God wishes us to choose rightly.  He wants us to choose freely to love and obey him.  As such, rather than compel us to obey him he gave us free will.  Man however, time and time, down through the ages has chosen to follow the lure of his own appetites, rather than following the dictates of God and thus the utopian state of the garden of Eden passes further and further from his grasp.”

“But you have chosen rightly Sir”, said Eilidh.

“Indeed,” he replied, “and were I perfect, and were all those around me perfect, then yes I and mine would no doubt never sicken nor die.  However I am not a perfect man, nor are those around me.  Unfortunately the choices of those around us affect the wellbeing of others; such as you saw in Rahoy Eilidh.”

He saw Eilidh about to speak but smiled and continued.  “That is not to say that I believe that we are directly guilty of the death of our own children, nor indeed that God causes them to die as a punishment for our sins, only that the world that we are in contains physical sickness, caused ultimately by that greater sickness that is evil.  We who live in the world suffer the results of the evil therein.

God is not a God of chaos, he does not destroy the laws he himself set in progress for the ordering of the universe.  That Eilidh is why, despite his manifold protections, such of we who try to follow his teachings suffer setbacks and sorrow, fall prey to the evil of the world that is brought about by the fall of man. 

I confess Eilidh, that even I have asked such questions of heaven as you have today asked me, when one of mine own, or another’s child has passed away before his or her allotted three score years and ten.”  The sorrow was plain on the kind peaceful face of the old man as he continued sadly.  “Even now my heart weeps for the life they have not experienced and for the time with them that we have lost.  Indeed it is only the belief that their innocence will surely mean that when the Great Book of Life is opened they will reign in heaven for ever; a guarantee that we who yet sin have not, despite our Lord Jesus dying so sorely for our sins.”

He turned to the girl, and his eyes were full of love and trust, as he said, “I have always found however that even in the darkest of hours, if you hold fast to your faith in God and his protection, that he will always lead you safely out of that place of darkness, back into the light.

As I grow older I can’t help but wonder if perhaps that time of trial, though hideously unpleasant and painful, strengthens one; I also wonder if we would be less able to do the greater things that God hopes for us to do, if we do not first learn to deal with lesser adversities.

I believe Eilidh that God has His hand on each and every one of His children, and that although we may be touched by the sorrows of this world they can never overcome us while we trust in Him.

Sometimes it is difficult to have that blind faith, sometimes also it is difficult to remember that as we are in the world we cannot just sit back and expect God to sort things out for us, that we must ourselves respond to the situation we are in whilst at the same time allowing ourselves to listen to God as we make these choices.  Did not Jesus say ‘If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain.  Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.’1”

The old man turned to the girl smiling kindly as he said.   “Eilidh, we cannot ever know someone else’s true story, or fully understand why they have the life they have, why they have seemingly been blessed with life’s fortunes or disasters.  This knowledge God keeps to himself.  It is only for us to know fully our own story. 

Suffice it is for us to know and believe that  if we have faith in God and our Lord Jesus then we have the guarantee that out of darkness will come a future better than that which we, with our puny mortal eyes, could for ourselves ever have foreseen.” 

“He sent Jesus to us as an example of how we should live, if we choose to follow God’s ways, and to show us the blessings that would happen if we could follow him perfectly,” said John, growing more confident as talk moved on to the topics he had heard discussed time and time again both in his home and in the home of others.  “But they chose to kill him rather than accept him as the Messiah.  They chose not to listen to his words.”

“Some though do choose to listen,” said Eilidh softly, looking at her young friend.

“Yes”, John replied, his eyes bright.  “And so they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so they might be guided at all times as to how they should speak and what they should do,  that  Jesus’s words and life might be at all times brought to their remembrance.”

They sat silent after this for a few moments thinking about these words,  then Eilidh turned to them and said quietly, “I thank you both, for your kindness.   Your words will sustain me over the next few months as I leave these parts.  It is a sore thing to do, to leave the people, the place one loves, perhaps for ever.”

The old man looked at her kindly.  “Those whom we truly love are never far away Eilidh, they are always with us in our hearts.  You are young however.  I can still remember how it was to feel the need of the warm touch of those that one loves, the desire to have them with one always.  That need never really goes but patience, which I believe increases a little with age, tempers the need apace.”

“The fruits of the Sprit,” said Eilidh with a smile. “Why I believe you have grown a veritable orchard!”

“Still the odd fruit of the wrong variety needing to be pruned out, but I’m working hard on it,” he replied with a wry smile.