The Orphan | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Orphan | Previous Challenge Entry
By Shanta Richard
01/11/12
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The physical and mental make of human beings can often be traced to their genes inherited from their parents or the environment and culture they are born into. The theory of Gnosticism claims that the spirit, (soul) is pure. But the body, (matter) that it is housed in, is evil. Thus it would appear that sin is part and parcel of man and there is nothing he can do about it. It is man’s nature to sin.

But what if there was a man who had no human inheritance – father, mother, siblings, relatives or friends – or any worldly influence? A man who lived in the beautiful and sinless environment of the presence of God? A man who was created by the holy God in His own image?

This is the story of that man, Adam, the world’s first human orphan. Although he had no human inheritance he was the son of God (Matt.3:38). And thus he became the inheritor of the Kingdom of God. God was his adopted father. His only friend, teacher, counselor and companion. He enjoyed the blissful fellowship of God in person. At that juncture God made a covenant with man – a commitment that He would honor this covenant as long as man would make a commitment to love God and keep His commandments. God’s first commandment to man was that he keep away from the tree of knowledge.

God created for him the garden of Eden – decorated it with trees and plants, flowers and fruits, hills and valleys, rivers and waterfalls, blue skies and white clouds. He gave Adam birds, animals and fishes to enjoy and play with. Yet Adam was lonely.

One evening, Adam sat by the river Pison, one of the rivers that watered the Garden of Eden. The rays of the setting sun reflected the gold over which the river flowed. Across the river on the grassy slope a pride of lions rested. He watched lion and the lioness and their little ones tumbling and playing on the grass. He saw a flock of sheep grazing nearby. He watched the lambs frolicking around. He looked up and saw the birds flying home in perfect formation. And in the river brightly colored fish swam in schools. As he watched Adam felt a nameless longing, an earning for his own kind. Adam was lonely.
God saw Adam and knew that His own presence, His fellowship and His love was not enough for man. Man needed the companionship of his own kind. So He said, “It is not good for man to be alone. Let us create a mate for him.” He created woman out of man’s own side- bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. They were pure for there was no sin in them. Adam and the first woman, Eve, lived in perfect peace and love with their God, each other and with the world around them.

Into this divine environment, Sin came – not in the form of a spirit, but in the form of matter, a serpent, (for man was matter.) Sin, Satan, could not entice man with anything worldly, for Adam had everything he could wish for. The only thing he did not possess was the power of God which would make him equal to God. Satan promised Adam, that if he would eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge he would get this power. Adam succumbed to that temptation and broke his commitment of obedience to God’s commands.

And thus it was that Adam, God’s adopted son, created in His own image, broke the covenant and lost the inheritance committed to him. He became the world’s first human and spiritual orphan.

( God in His infinite mercy and grace did reverse the situation by sending His Son to atone for Adam’s sin and reinstate man to his heavenly inheritance – if he would repent and make a new commitment of love and obedience to God.)

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