When as a kid, I found a box with several pairs of small rose-colored glasses. My curiosity was peaked, so I asked my mom, “What are these small rose-colored glasses?” She, being a farmer’s daughter, was quick to give a not so pleasant answer. “Well, son, when a chicken is injured, it is necessary to either separate that chicken or place rose-colored glasses on the other chickens to protect the injured chicken. Otherwise, they will kill the injured chicken.” It was her following statement that brought even more tears to my eyes. “You also put those glasses on the chickens when it is time to butcher them. It keeps the other chickens from panicking when they see another chicken die.”
This actual illustration causes me to ask the following question. “Do we often read the scriptures thru rose-colored glasses?” Do we read the scriptures, missing the clues that tell us we are in danger, more danger than we can imagine?
In the creation account, we are introduced to paradise. This statement fortifies this feeling of contentment. “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31). What more splendid explanation could there be to illustrate the paradise that existed than to say, “it was very good,” excellent, perfect.
Yet when the author of Genesis expands and expounds upon the creation account, we perceive something lurking in the background. Something unexplained and forboding. Suddenly, in what is seemingly a perfect world, there is the hint that all is not perfect. There is something wrong. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden (paradise) to tend and to keep it (provided them with employment). And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ ” (Genesis 2:15-17).
While wearing our rose colored-glasses, did we miss it? Or did you catch the subtle hint that all is not well, all is not perfect? When closing chapter one, it finishes with the words, “It was very good.” But the account, when expanded upon, explains in greater detail God’s involvement in creation. Yet, there is a hint that all is not well. In the tree, there is death. There is no explanation as to who, what, or how this came to be; only that death is in the tree.
Upon seeing God, humanity was asked to trust that He is their Creator. Now in Genesis 2:17, the Creator asks them to trust Him once again in that what lurks in the tree is not suitable for them. It is something out of their reality to understand. Yet, they were asked to trust the Creator and that He had their best interest in mind.
When we read the passage through our rose-colored glasses, we miss the Creator’s love. We forget the fact that He asked humanity to place their trust in Him. Our first parents couldn’t comprehend what was entirely at stake, so he simply said, “Trust Me. I know what lurks in the tree. You do not want to partake of what is in the tree. Paradise all around, created for your enjoyment, so trust in Me for by partaking paradise is no more, yet I will never leave you.”
Today, as we can clearly see, even thru our rose-colored glasses, paradise is no more. Yet, God still asks us to trust Him. It is by trusting God that paradise can once more be restored for those that trust in God.
The Bible In Your Hand 