We Weren’t Created For This

Our ride home from church tonight was eerily quiet. Not one word spoken. The same continued once we sat down in the living room. Silence. My mind and my heart are struggling to process the events of today. I simply cannot make sense of it. Instead of spiraling down a pit of despair, I turned to God and just begged for Him to show me something. Anything that could help. That’s when I remembered.

In Genesis 2:17 we read, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”. When mankind was created in the image of God (imago Dei), clear instructions were given. You shall not eat……you shall surely die. This was not a physical death. Not yet. This was representative of a spiritual death. We were never intended to have the knowledge of evil. We were only meant to know good. Separation from God was the opposite of His plan. And yet that’s precisely what happened. Because of free will. Because we didn’t trust Him. Our eyes were opened to things we were never intended to see.

A few days ago, the images of a young girl brutally attacked on a train began to ingrain themselves in our minds. We shook our heads and asked questions. It’s not possible to make sense of it.

Today, a man most of us never met, was targeted and killed while the world watched. If there’s a shred of decency in our body, we recoiled at what we saw and the reports that continued to bombard us.

Friends, we were not made for this. We’re struggling to process because we weren’t supposed to have this knowledge. Our minds can’t handle this evil.

I don’t live in fear. Jesus is my peace. But I was never…………We were never………….intended to see or know such evil. God knew we couldn’t handle it.

I’ll go to bed tonight with prayers for his wife, Erika, and his two children on my lips. I’ll also be praying for our souls. Jesus, please help us to run to you. We weren’t created for this. And I’ll also thank God that I can have confidence that Charlie is now bowing at the feet of Jesus beside the tree of life that the Bible ends with in Revelation 22.