Where did sin come from? How did it infect the human race so thoroughly? Can it be fixed? And, while we are on the subject, what in the world do Adam and Eve have to do with anything?

From God's perspective... and let me pause here a moment. I am learning—as in, currently and repeatedly, because I am sorely tempted to forget—that I must begin with what God thinks about a subject versus what I think, no matter how reasonable or ingenious I might believe my thoughts.

While God values my thinking (why He does I am not certain), His thoughts are well above mine and His purposes are beyond my ability to grasp unless the Holy Spirit offers an explanation (Is. 55:8; Jn. 16:13). It is a great testimony to God's patience, grace, humility, and good nature that He condescends to discuss His thoughts, share His perspectives, and guide me via the Holy Spirit.

It has been my experience that when I begin with my views and attempt to get God to concur that I run amok and succumb to various temptations of the enemy, most of which involve accusing God of being unreasonable and disinterested. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth—one does not die for someone He is not interested in preserving, nurturing, and advancing!

So to get this straight in our thinking, we begin with God's perspective. From where He sits, the genesis of humanity is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. His hope with their creation was that they would remain as He created them: perfect and innocent. It doesn't take much reading in the early lines of the Bible's pages to gather that God loved walking and talking with Adam and Eve. As a matter of fact, He was so fond of the experience that it was a ritual before the Bible is four pages old.

Further, these walks and the relationship that fueled them, were not just about Adam and Eve but about God's vision for all of mankind. As the progenitors of the human race, Adam and Eve were the people from whom all men would inherit their ability to communicate with God and from whom all men would model their interaction with Him.