One day, however, one of the animals, a serpent, to be precise, whispered to the man's wife that there might be something more to life. Being only human, the wife was intrigued and suggested to the man that the two of them might need to expand their horizons by learning about good and evil. There was only one problem: knowledge of good and evil was the one thing God had told them they could not have. So the man and the woman faced a choice.  They could stay the as they were or become "self-actualized" by rebelling against God.  They had also been told by God that rebellion was a death penalty offense.

      Given all that they had and all that God had told them about the alternative, the decision they faced should have been a no-brainer. Still, they decided to pursue their own will.

     God loved these two as their Father, but sometimes even a parent cannot avoid disciplining defiant children. So he tossed the rebellious couple out of their home and told them they would have to make their own way in the world.  The man and the woman also discovered that something deep inside of them had died and that they could no longer find God to talk to Him.

    By and by, the man and the woman had lots of kids, and their kids had kids, and so on and so on. Each new arrival was born with the same rebellious spirit. Along the way, some of the children invented things like murder, theft, war and envy.

     After a few thousand years, God singled out one group of rebels and offered them amnesty if they would only follow a perfectly reasonable set of rules, rules like don't steal, don't envy, don't cheat on your wife, love your neighbor.  Some of the rebels tried to follow the rules, and a few even did pretty well most of the time.  But even in the most righteous of them, the spirit of rebellion, independence and pride took control and no one could follow the rules all of the time.

     Several more centuries passed, and God finally did what He had known all along He would have to do; He sent His only begotten Son to Earth to live as a man.  Being God, this Son could resist the rebellious spirit and remain loyal and entirely obedient to His Father.  Being also a man, He was qualified to pay the penalty for everyone else's rebellion by His death.

     The Son's name was Jesus. He lived an earthly life of perfect submission to His Father. He offered himself to all as the doorway to reconciliation with God.  He  opened the door by dying on a cross built by our fellow rebels. He proved that the way was open by rising from the dead and going before us to Heaven.

     We have accepted God's offer of amnesty by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and surrendering our lives and our wills to His care. We trust that He will do all that He has said He will do for us.  By trusting Christ,  we have been spiritually reborn. We have His Holy Spirit living inside of us.  Because we have trusted Him, we have gained eternal life, fellowship with God, and the ability to live in harmony with God's will in the here and now. Most of all, we have experienced God's love for us which we can now pass on to others in our day to day lives.

     We aren't perfect. We still want our own way at times. But we have peace because we know that our debt has been paid.  It is quite simply the greatest feeling that a person can experience.