January 3, 2005

"How Can This Be?"

"How Can This Be?"  Have you ever asked God that?  "How can this be?  Who me?  How can this be?"  It is too bad that, in the Garden of Eden, Eve did not go back and say to God, "How can this be?"  She listened to the serpent, and she acted on that.  God had said, "Do not eat from the tree of knowledge.  This is the tree that is going to let you know what is good and what is not."  And they ate.  She gave the enemy a lot of information. 

Remember that when we are in that deeper inner room with God, the enemy does not know what is happening there.  It is a tremendous safeguard.  The enemy did not really know what had been said to Adam and Eve in that intimacy and pure light that they walked in every day.  He did not know.  So he asked, "Did God really say not to eat of any of the fruit of the trees?"  And Eve gave him the answer, "No, God didn't say that.  He said we could eat of all the fruit except that one."  That was the knowledge he needed.  He didn't know that, and so that is where the temptation came.  He said, "Oh, you won't die - you certainly will not die!  No, God knows full well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods!"  Look how he was tempting Eve in that pride element - and that was manifested in disobedience.   Scripture tells us that Eve wanted that wisdom - it looked good.

In prayer one time, I asked the Lord, "Why didn't You want them to eat of that tree?  It is a tree of wisdom.  It is a tree of discernment.  It is a tree of knowledge.  It is everything we need to know for good decisions."  The Lord simply said, "Because I want you to come to Me for those decisions."  If we had that kind of knowledge, we would probably become very independent.  We wouldn't need God.  We would become little gods, just like Satan wants us to be, and very independent. 

Pride really is the root of sin.  Independence - where we do not need God.  In the book of Genesis, we hear about the Woman again.  The Father is speaking directly to Satan, "I will put enmity between you, now, and the Woman, between her offspring and yours."  We are her offspring.  Jesus is her offspring.  Mary is the Woman - the Woman of Genesis.  She is the servant, and she knew that there is only one God.  In her humility she didn't want to be like "gods" in that way.  She wanted only to serve.

In Psalm 25, verses 4 and 5, we find words that we can use to pray to God,  "Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me Your paths, guide me in Your truth and teach me."  Remember, Satan is a liar.  He lies and deceives.  Jesus is very clear on this aspect of Satan.  So we need to ask God, "How can this be?"  We need to ask the question.  Children do not hesitate to ask questions; grownups do.  Grownups get into our pride and hesitate, but Jesus said, "Let the little ones come to me."  They will ask the questions.  And what happens?  "How can this be?"  Mary gets an answer - a revelation!  "The Holy Spirit will come upon you" - the Holy Spirit, God's pure light, God's pure truth.  We need this for the tremendous gift of discernment.

We see that discernment flows out of relationship.  That is what God intended, way back in Genesis, that discernment should flow out of the relationship.  "Come to Me for your counsel.  Come to Me for your wisdom.  I will let you know because you are a child of the light, and I am the God of Light.  I do not want you to stumble and fall.  I do not want you to walk in the dark, but come to Me in that beautiful humility and full dependence."  Our Lady, spouse of the Holy Spirit, is the Lady of Light.  When the Holy Spirit overshadows us, as He overshadowed Our Lady, He comes with His gifts.  He uses His own gifts.  Maybe He uses them because we don't know how to use them.  They are the sevenfold gifts, particularly those we received at Confirmation, which He will use as we allow Him to overshadow us. 

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's "How Can This Be?" Pecos, NM, 2004.