Black and White and Adam and Eve

In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were given two commandments.

1. Multiply and replenish the earth.
2. Do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In the church we are familiar with this dichotomy. Commandment one could not be completed without disobeying commandment two. What were Adam and Eve to do?

I recently read a classic short story called The Invisible Collection from Out of the Best Books Volume 1 (p. 329). This short story was in a section titled “Good Versus Evil.”

In this short story, an art shop owner/dealer learns of a patron of his art shop, which his father and grandfather ran before him, that had been a client for nearly 60 years. He decides to go visit this client to see his collection and see if he might be able to purchase some of it back from him. The client had been collecting for 6 decades and the pieces he bought for cents were now worth a fortune. This story was set in Germany after the war. Inflation was ravaging the country.

The art dealer visited the modest home of this art collector, only to learn that the art collector that had purchased hundreds of paintings, drawings, and art pieces from his shop was blind. This art collector hadn’t always been blind, he had become blind after the war. Our main character, the art shop owner, learned that this now very old man still daily pulled out the many portfolios he had collected and went through each piece one by one. He used his memory to see every detail he had spent countless hours admiring when he still had his vision. His art collection, even blind, was his greatest treasure.

When our shop owner arrived at the home, he was immediately pulled aside by the wife and daughter of this old man. They told him the truth before he could cry out in astonishment in front of the old man. In order to survie they had been selling the art pieces for years. The husband of a second daughter of the old art collector had been killed in the war and she was left with 4 young children to feed. The family was barely getting by, barely surviving. They sold these priceless art items to survive. They replaced the real art with papers to fool the old man. They never told the old man because, understandably, they didn’t want to break his heart.

This story really made me think.

Lying is bad, right? And yet, in this story, the family of the old man had to lie, didn’t they? Or did they?

Multiply and replenish the earth, but don’t eat from that tree. Many things in this life are not black and white. There isn’t a “right” or “wrong” answer to every question. There’s a lot of gray area in this life. That’s the point, though. God wants us to learn in this life to be wise stewards. He wants us to learn to make decisions for ourselves, to learn and grow from our choices.

“nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee”

Moses 3:17

God is teaching us to be rulers in this life. God wants us to learn good from evil. He wants us to learn to follow the promptings of the Spirit (truth) and learn to follow that guidance. He wants us to take many options and make the best choice. He wants us to learn how to evaluate what is best to do, then do it.

Being worthy is receiving something, putting it into your life, and acting upon it. As we prove ourselves worthy God gives us bit by bit more, and we grow step by step. That is what God is teaching us in this life. Worthiness, righteousness, freedom of choice, and stewardship.

So, in this light, that we’re daily being tutored by God for greater purposes, how are our daily choices?