Reflections of a beloved son

Our world today has seemingly adopted a culture of death. This culture of death is disguised as the freedom to choose and the freedom to live life as one sees best and ultimately as happiness. But as its name implies, this culture ultimately leads to death. Pursuing life in a selfish and self-centered manner will lead not only to unhappiness but also death. What is life without love?  What is life when other people are not around you? That is no life. That is death. Life only makes sense with love. And love, true love, is laying down one’s life for another. True love is selfless and others-centered, but we can only come to realize this when we see and know how much we have been loved and continue to be loved. God loved us so much that He became man for us, and not only that, He came to us in a manner that aims to sustain us not just for a moment but for eternity. God became man because He wanted us to know that we were made for life and for love. The only way to live and to love is...

" Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden? "  That was how Satan, the devil, the enemy introduced himself to Eve.  What an introduction, imagine that.  If someone came up to you and said "Did he really say..." instead of "Good morning, how are you?" or "What a beautiful day" or something similar, how would you feel?  I would feel awkward and not sure if I really want to engage this person in conversation. However, I'd still be cordial.  (With the enemy, we should never engage in dialogue) But this isn't about manners.  It's about something deeper.  It's about our life, our salvation. The serpent used what he knew was a lie to engage Eve in conversation.  He knew that God allowed Adam and Eve to eat of any of the trees in the garden but to not eat of the Tree of Knowledge.  So, the enemy was playing mind games with Eve, trying to make her question God's goodness and intentions. That is how he tr...