ALTERNATES

I am going to level with you, I haven’t been to church in weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I love my church, and my Pastor is greatest, he’s a friend (and a fan.) I had a serious surgery a few weeks back and haven’t been out of the house much since. Our church is a little crowded, and I’m concerned about getting ‘bumped’ by one or more of the people at church, usually the kids. They aren’t bad children, they’re just kids, and have a lot of energy. I will be back in church soon enough, and I am in the Word every day. Which brings me to an interesting topic.

I am not only a speculative fiction writer; I enjoy reading it as well. One of my favorited topics is alternate history. I’ve never tried my hand at writing in this genre, and I doubt that I’d be very good at it. Still, there are some storylines that I wonder about. And the best always starts with ‘what if…’

In Genesis 3:9 – 11, we read this:

…9 So the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?” 10 “I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten of the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”…

It goes on from there to become a blame-game, Adam says Eve gave him the fruit, and Eve says the Serpent tricked her into it. We never hear what the Serpent has to say about it, which is probably a good thing. So, here’s my question, what if instead of hiding, Adam had run to God and confessed immediately?

Yes, Adam disobeyed God’s direct order, but if he came out and was honest and genuinely repentant, what would have been God’s reaction? What if Adam had said, “Lord, tell me what I can do to prove to you that it won’t happen again.” Think about it for a moment, and keep in mind that God loved Adam dearly.

If you have children, what is your reaction if your child does something wrong but immediately tells you about and shows that they really are sorry about it?

What if God smiled at Adam, put his hand on him, and forgave him? I’m pretty sure that the Serpent would still have suffered some severe consequences; after all, he was the initiator of the chain of events. But would we have remained in the garden? Would our entire planet be the garden? How close would our relationship with God be?

We know that childbirth for women would be as easy as falling asleep and that men wouldn’t have to work ‘by the sweat of their brow’ to eat. We also know that we would be able to see and have conversations with God all the time. Basically, the entirety of history would be changed.

What we do know is, almost from the second we left the garden, maybe even before, God was working on His plan to bring us back to Him.

I pray you are having a fantastic weekend!

KM