Not Necessarily the Views of this Radio Station...

Let me begin by saying: I am not a degreed minister, nor do I have some sort of "holy" credentials that give me the ability to read the mind of God. I am simply sharing my beliefs and my suppositions. Now that we have that out of the way...

I think Adam and Eve must have been around 15 or 16 when they were kicked out of the Garden.

Let's back up: I fully believe that God created us in His image and that He gave us our family structure to expalin our relationship with Him. That's why we call Him "Father" and why He calls us His "Children".

So, I figure Adam and Eve were created as (figurative) "children". They trusted God. They loved playing in the Garden. They loved playing with the animals and marveling over creation. They delighted in riding ponies, elephants and camels. They challenged each other to see who could be the better impersonator of chickens, monkeys and who could howl like a wolf. They swam the oceans and streams and climbed trees and were happy.

Then Adam and Eve became teenagers and hit puberty. Adam started strutting around the Garden, challenging the lion to fights and being moody. Eve started looking around at the other animals and comparing herself to them.

God and the kids started having conversations much like we have with teenagers today:

EVE: "Dad, I'm BORED!!!"

GOD: "Go swim or put flowers in your hair, honey."

EVE: "(Raspberry) I did that already. I want to do something NEW."

ADAM: "Hey, Dad, can't this horse go any FASTER??? I want to go faster than the Cheeta and fly. How come I can't fly?

GOD: "Adam, you can go just as fast as you need to. And I didn't make you to fly."

EVE: "Hey, Dad, how come the monkeys can eat the apples and we can't? It's not fair."

GOD: "If all the animals jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too?"

EVE: "No, DUH! But, I want an apple! Just one???"

ADAM: "Yeah, Dad, I'll bet apples make me go faster and You just don't want me to be happy. You just don't get me."

EVE: "Yeah. You've never been a teenager before. (Heavy Sigh)."

So, as you see, the serpent didn't have a lot of work cut out for him to persuade these "people" to want more than they had. And poor God was probably at His wit's end just trying to get them to keep the Garden clean.

Fortunately, mankind does get a happy ending- through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Thank goodness God loves us!

And, having been a teenager once myself, thank goodness my parents love me! And, as the circle goes on, I will love my children, even as they progress to their apple-eating stage. And I will celebrate with them as they come out the other side- more world-wise, but more respectful for it.