Cereal and Your Heart's Desire

Several  years ago while doing grocery shopping,  I was suddenly dumbstruck as I turned down the aisle to pick out some cereal.  I stood and looked gapingly at the massive selection of all different kinds of cereals, hot and cold, healthy and unhealthy, name-brand and non-name brand and everything in between.    “How am I supposed to choose,” I cried aloud.  “ I just want cereal…”

We here in the US are blessed with tremendous largesse of well, nearly everything.  From Super Walmarts to the Internet, it is all out there and available.   Lush largesse looms largely in our lives indeed.

Lush, largesse…it gets me thinking about the beginning again.  Adam and Eve in Paradise.    What could be more lush than Paradise, the Garden of Eden?   The Garden of Eden brings to mind a host of images, smells, tastes, sounds-- an extravaganza for the senses.   Picture Adam and Eve before The Fall, walking around and surrounded by, well everything-- every form of life, every color, every sound.    The magnitude of this sensuality is nearly beyond imagination.  Put yourself there.   They had everything.  And yet….

Think about our lives today in the US.   The sights, sounds, tastes, smells, every form of life, every color , every sound.  The magnitude of this sensuality is nearly beyond imagination.   We have everything.  And yet….

It is largely believed that the first sin was pride.  Satan tempted Eve, telling her that God did not want them to be like Himself; to be gods.   We presume that sounded good to her ears because she went ahead and took that bite, with Adam following along right after her.  (Adam didn’t even put a fight!  And after all God did for him, you would think Adam would have a least tried to resist.)   Even though they were living in Paradise,  there is a hint that they wanted more than what had been was bestowed upon them.  Satan knew this or at least had some sense of it.  Perhaps while slithering around, he saw and sensed the longing.  They somehow opened the door to his malicious trick.  Remember:  Satan cannot come in where he isn’t welcomed.    Apparently, it didn’t take much to convince them that the grass was greener on God’s side of the street.

The temptation was that if they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would be like God.   They liked that idea, huh?   So if they wanted to be like God, well why didn’t they ask Him? It wasn’t like they didn’t know Him…Adam would take walks with God in the Garden.  They knew God.  Why didn’t they ask?  Why did they just take? 

Somehow, something occurred within them.  I wonder if part of the problem with Adam and Eve was having all of that lushness around them.   I wonder if they got caught up in it all and in each other.   They were having fun and enjoying all that was around them and yet they obviously wanted more of… something.   They wanted more.  They were not satisfied with all they had which was Paradise.  Had they been satisfied,  Satan would not have had a chance.  Yet, it seems that they yearned for more than what was around them, more than even each other.  

Reflect on that for a time.     They had this desire and instead of going to the One who brought it all into being, they listened to a snake and tried to take it for themselves.  They wanted to selfishly take from the One Who Freely Gives.  Sound familiar?

It makes me wonder if perhaps while tending the Garden and caring for each other, that they lost sight of God.   Perhaps the walks through the Garden had diminished.  Perhaps Adam was spending too much time alone with Eve.  Perhaps they were so engrossed with what they had, that they forgot Who gave it to them  and somehow, because they were working the land, they began to feel ownership of it.   They began to think it was theirs  and could do what they liked with it - even choosing to take the word of a snake.  They listened to one of the creatures over which they had been given dominion instead of God. 

Much like we do today. 

We have so much from food to technology to entertainment to adventure, etc.  I often say that in today’s world, we don’t “need” God.  Now, I don’t mean that.  I know that I am in desperate need of His Mercy and Love.  Yet, our world goes on like it doesn’t need Him.  We have forgotten from where it all has come and have this notion that somehow the answer lies within creation.  We therefore chase after more of the same, wanting more and more, but to no avail. 

I think that the moment of this awakening in Adam and Eve, when they realized they wanted more, could have been a tremendous moment for humankind, for had they turned to the Father and told Him of the inner desires of their hearts, they would have entered into a new kind of being with God.  He loves us like nobody’s business and well He knows what is good for us.  He would have given them His Life, Life in the Father.   

Reflect awhile on the Garden of Eden – both the one of our first parents and your own Garden of Eden. 

Are you still taking walks with God there in the garden?   Or are you perhaps spending too much time with work, leisure and even family?

What are your desire, the desires of your heart?   Have you told Him about them?  Or are you talking to snakes?

Have you thanked Him lately for the blessings in your life? For life itself?    Or do you believe that you deserve all of your success because of how smart, talented and hard-working you are?

"Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O God." – St. Augustine.

There may be all kinds of cereal out there, but there is only one God.

Lord, may I exclaim, “All I want is You.” 

"I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."