The Root of all Creation

Ever since I had my experience of awakening in August of 2017 I have been fascinated with the concept of the Greek word metanoia. No word in the English language truly encompasses what the word metanoia truly means, of course Bible translators from the early days of English translations deemed the word repent as a reasonable replacement for such a deep and weighty word, but it in no way truly grasps what the word metanoia is.

I have had several podcasts where I’ve talked about metanoia and what it has meant for me, feel free to listen in long form to my conversations or my monologues about the subject. But this blog isn’t going to dive too deep into the actual meaning of metanoia, but it serves as a little exposition behind my musings in this blog post. More to the point I am going to talk about another fascination I have had since my awakening in August of 2017. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The original choice presented to humanity wan’t really a choice, but rather a mandate to stay away from one tree and feast on all of the other trees in the garden of pleasure (Eden). It took convincing to make man choose to eat from the tree, it was not natural to do so, in fact to eat from the tree flew against every thing Adam knew to be truth, so why did he?

The story goes that Adam didn’t run over to the tree, pick a piece of fruit and start chowing down, instead he was coaxed by the good and perfect gift of his wife. He would have done anything she asked of him, he was enamored by her, when he slept he dreamt of her. He loved his wife because she was literally the best gift he had ever gotten. God told him not to eat from that tree, God didn’t tell her, God have him her and told him that she was good and perfect, she told him to eat from the tree. In his mind he thought that maybe her desire for him to eat from the tree was superseded by her desire for him to eat simply because she was his good and perfect gift.

This story isn’t a story about whether or not men are superior to women or visa-versa, nor is this a blog post about everything being Eve’s fault. Eve knew what Adam told her, God never told her. So realistically she didn’t really know any better. Adam was intoxicated by his love for his bride that he did whatever she asked of him, which was not a good combination. Adam also didn’t really know any better, because remember the tree he was told not to eat from was not simply the tree of Good and Evil.

Good and Evil existed, however Adam and Eve were completely oblivious to this fact. I mean they ran around in the garden of pleasure (Eden) completely naked. They frolicked with lions and tigers and bears, oh my, they rolled around in the fields with poison ivy and all sorts of creepy crawly bugs and they had no concerns for anything at all. There was no worry about what they would eat, there was no worry about how they would be clothed or if they had a roof over their head, they had absolutely no care in the world, nothing at all offended them.

Eve bit from the fruit, and she thought it was tasty. Nothing changed, her eyes were not opened, everything was the same, so she thought that Adam had told her something that wasn’t necessarily true. But when Adam ate, immediately both of their eyes were opened, they saw their nakedness, the garden filled them with fear with all of the animals and weird plants that were scattered everywhere. The spot where he was intimate with his good and perfect gift that morning was in a bramble of thorns. Afraid he ran and grabbed fig leaves and sewed them together to cover their nakedness. (Fig leaves have a pretty deep meaning here, I believe.) They immediately his because he knew in a few minutes God would be coming to spend time with them and frolic with them with all of the animals, and all the darkness and scary bugs.

When God came to the garden, he realized it was no longer a garden of pleasure. He sought Adam and Eve and began calling for them, having played hide and seek with them before, he noticed something radically different, there was no laughter. He didn’t see them running around, but they were hidden. He called for them but they refused to answer because they were filled with fear and worry and anxiety. They were terrified of what God would do to them. He called,

“Oh Adam, c’mon out, you have hidden long enough.”

“We don’t want to God, we are embarrassed.” Adam said out loud as they stayed hidden.

“Oh good heavens, why in the world would you be embarrassed?” He asked amused, knowing what they had done he had done what any good father would do by allowing his kids to “fess up” as my mom used to call it.

“We are naked, ashamed, scared.” Adam cried out.

"The first question out of God’s mouth at their admission was, “Who told you that you were naked?”

As we leave that story I view this as the literal root of the idea of metanoia. All of creation was based upon this concept of choice. From God’s perspective he knew it was a choice presented as a mandate to stay away, but knowing his kids were curious they would eventually choose the route they did. After all scripture does tell us that Jesus is the lamb slain before creation. Jesus, God in our flesh, even said from the cross, “Forgive them Father for they don’t know what they are doing.” It was a complete circle that ended with the Death of Jesus on the cross and that sick cycle carousel was destroyed with His resurrection.

So everything lies in the idea of metanoia, which means to change your mind and direction, to think differently. Not to think in terms of if something is good or evil but rather thinking of situations from the perspective of not having an opinion about it whether it be good or evil. Because if Adam would have never ate from the tree, he would have never realized anything was good or evil, he would have just lived full of joy with his good and perfect wife, Eve.

There is debate over whether Adam and Eve were real, or if they were simply poetry explaining the human dilemma, I lean on the belief that they were very real. Flesh caused the fall, and God in that Flesh redeemed us all.

You may have noticed that I might ask in certain situations, “What tree are you eating from?” This is where that question comes from. It is a constant reminder for me that I need to remember that I am feasting on the Tree of Life and not that of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

I am programmed to fall into old patterns of despair when I focus on things that make me get anxious and nervous about things. I think everyone is.

But we can be free, like truly free. Only by laying everything down and realizing that we are just his kids in this beautiful playground of a world. We can just rest and change our way of thinking.

Metanoia.