More often than not, we don't particularly like the idea of someone telling us what to do, of there being limits or boundaries to our lives.  And yet, this is the very nature of our entire existence.  From the moment we're born, we are under the supervision and direction of our parents.  As we grow older, teachers and coaches set parameters for us.  Later on, employers and spouses have a thing or two to say about what we can and cannot do.  Yet something in us chafes at the idea of being told what to do, and especially, being told what NOT to do.  

We certainly see this in the Bible's opening chapters, where Adam and Eve are presented with incredible freedom and an array of amazing choices.  They are free to enjoy and work in a beautiful garden God has planted.  They can eat from any tree in it...except one.  Because we know how the story ends, this almost feels like a set up.  Why would God say something like this and seemingly set them up to fail?  

It seems that God is saying something here about the moral universe he has created, that to be a creature entails having some limits, boundaries, that our growth involves developing moral discernment so we can learn to make good choices.

We all know that Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command and chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We live with the results of their fateful choice every single day.  And we also often re-enact that choice, don't we?  We extend our hand for the forbidden fruit, trying to seize a measure of happiness or fulfillment NOW.  

So what are we to do?  How do we go on in this fallen, broken world, especially with our tendency to sometimes do the very thing that God has told us NOT to do?  

Our human failure points us to the need for something or Someone outside of ourselves to help us, Someone who can give us life, Someone who IS life.  In Revelation 22, we see this Someone's new creation, his new Eden, where the tree of life reappears to bring "healing to the nations" (Revelation 22:2).  

As we consider the many ways we reach for the forbidden fruit, may we turn to the One who offers us life to find healing.