Victory Over the Darkness, Anderson
The first thing we notice about Christ, the last Adam, is His complete dependence on God the Father...Jesus modeled for us what it means to live 100% dependent on God.
...unlike the first Adam, Jesus did not forfeit His spiritual life at some point through sin.
I now have this strange picture of humans. First, when I think of the Fall, I think of how Esau traded his firstborn rights to his brother for food...and second I think of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and how Edmund traded his brother and sisters for candy.
We are so willing to think of the right now needs of our little selves that we will not consider the later consequences of our actions. Further, because we think in that way, we do not actively want to be dependent upon anyone.
The world is filled with such examples--advertisement is filled with having things only as we want it. Being free and independent is the goal of society.
I have had to be more dependent upon other people this last year than I have in ages. I have had to rely on others to drive me, cook larger meals, check and see if I am dead, if I have even eaten. Further, I have to rely on doctors to listen to me, pick the right prescriptions, rely on pharmacies to have the medications (believe me, that is a hard thing), and rely on insurance (and that one is hysterical---).
Being so dependent on others after being in college and working has been an odd thing...
We rarely walk with any length of time in full dependence upon God---not every moment of every single day. We get distracted by something shiny, whatever it may be--even daily routine. We may have a relationship with Him, and a meaningful one, but we may not walk every step in full dependence upon God.
Dependence upon God, a full dependence, would look more like what an infant-mother relationship is. No baby is satisfied unless mama is in view---preferably sitting on said mama. The times in my life that were most fully focused on God were ones that had me leaning hard on Him.
In the Garden, we were not mini-gods, we did not find trials to "remind" us to focus on God. We were without sin, could be in His presence, and were reminded constantly to have a full relationship with Him. A perfect world, a perfect relationship.
Here, with sin ruling our lives in one way or another, by our wonderful and imaginative choice of mini-godhood, we are reminded that we need God. If we did not face the trials of sin, we would not remember that being without Him really is what Hell is all about, we would not know why our life was so unbearably empty. Yet my reader might ask why a good God would allow us to face horrible things? Why not let us just live free and unhurt?
Because we would be even more hurt without God. We were created to live with God at all times---He came and walked in the afternoons with us. We were not created to be without God. We face the harshness of sin as much as a child faces the harshness of being scolded for trying to stuff fingers in a socket.
Consider this that C.S. Lewis had to say: "If the universe us so bad...how on earth did human beings even come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator? Men are fools, perhaps, but hardly so foolish as that."
The hardest times in my life were, in some ways, great times. During those times I was with God so much that it made those hardest things not so bad. I still do not want to face what I face now, nor the other things I have faced. I do love God so much because He was, is, and always will be there for me. While we may face the horrors of making the choice to be mini-gods...we are so blessed to have a God who forgave us and holds us close.
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