“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” — Genesis 2:16-17

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It was a cold winter morning the day of our conditioning test — the day we had all been dreading. The fateful test to determine if we had trained hard enough during the break before the season. Questions like “What does an early-morning conditioning test have to do with playing baseball?” and “What is the point of this?” ran through the minds of my teammates and me.

I wonder if Adam had any similar thoughts in the Garden of Eden. “What does placing a tree I cannot eat from have to do with being made in God’s image?” “What is the point of this?” All of these questions stem from a single thought: “Can I trust You, God?”

You have to trust the character of the one who created the test, believing they have your best interest in mind. A test is revealing. It is an opportunity to unveil not only the desires of the heart, but also the true nature of both the giver of the test and the one taking it. God’s greatest desire was perhaps to simply walk with Adam in the cool of the day — to know him and be known by him. Yet, the test for Adam ends tragically. He places his trust in the deceitful whispers of a shrewd, slithery adversary, revealing the selfish desires within the heart of man that brought destruction into the world.

But God pursues and draws Adam and Eve out even after their failure, and offers all of us the promise to send the One who will rescue and pass the test on our behalf.

— Tyler Keele, Tennessee Smokies chaplain

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