Stewardship

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One of the greatest tragedies about the fall of humankind in the garden of delight was that the tempter actually conned the unsuspecting couple into reaching out illicitly for what they already had: the likeness to their Creator and the knowledge of good and evil or right and wrong. They were like their Creator already in the sense that they were made in the Creator’s image with intelligence and language, and the will or ability to choose. They already had the knowledge of good and evil in that they knew in their hearts that what they were being coaxed to do was wrong, but yielded anyway to gain the supposed benefits. Adam and Eve had it all and their tempter knew it, they were thoroughly blessed, so he had to somehow maneuver them into accepting and embracing the illusion that there were still elusive blessings being kept out of their reach. The tempter was successful and won a temporary victory against humanity. But more than that he triumphed over humanity because he persuaded them that they lacked what, in fact, they possessed all the time. One of the hallmarks of the tempter is that, like a crooked but slick lawyer, he takes particular relish in persuading the unsuspecting into surrendering a superior product or quality in exchange for an inferior one. That in his view is more than winning the day, but triumphing in it. But stay tuned and don’t ignore the adjective “temporary.” Such triumphs are even more fragile than the victories they crown. As most any good dentist would tell you, crowns have a way of coming loose!

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