The DIY disaster

My daughter and I came across this picture.  It was the kind of recipe that inspires dinners, dieters and DIY chefs alike.  A huge piece of cake lay artfully under two scoops of ice cream.  The caption proclaimed it would make its own caramel sauce in the pan.  One look and she proclaimed, "That's what sin looks like."  


Confused?  Me too. Before I could ask her about it, she threw up her hands. "Wait!  Wait"  grabbed her phone and pulled up this.  

"That's what sin is!  A DIY disaster!"


I was struck by her wisdom.  Sin always LOOKS so good.  Sin always feels so bad.  And most certainly we do it to ourselves!

On Sunday her dad preached about the Fall.  I have been really struck lately with the way that the first few chapters of Genesis set up the truths that the world operates by.  

1) Sin=Appeal.  “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). Although there is everything right about that amazing snickerdoodle cake in the picture, we understand the metaphor.  Sin looks good and then...

4) Sin=DIY  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:8-13).

Playing the blame game didn't change the facts.  Adam and Eve had no one to blame but themselves. Sin is truly a Do-It-Yourself disaster. 

2) Sin=Pain.  “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe with painful labor you will give birth to children.Your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Eve's sin brought her (and us) great pain in childbirth.  

3) Sin=Death. “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from itall the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you,and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:17-19). Adam's sin brought death to all creation.  

In our own lives sin means pain and death too.  The blow-up that feels so good when we've been pushed to our limit, becomes the habit that causes our adult kids to stop calling us.  Pain and Death.  The innocent flirtation with our understanding coworker becomes the affair that destroys our marriage.  Pain and Death.  The quiet envy of a family member's good fortune, becomes the monster of discontent that destroys our every chance at happiness. Pain and Death. 

Thanksgiving is the season of Pinterest; a half-hour of pinning and I believe in the impossible. I can fold linen napkins into decorative turkeys. (You can't make this stuff up! Go to Pinterest and put in "Decorative Turkey Napkins" and see all the examples for yourself!) I can make multi-course meals, wreaths from scavenged pine needles, be the perfect hostess and redecorate all during the 2 day Thanksgiving break.

Pinterest lies.  Satan does too.  He regularly tells us (like he told Eve) that it's not our fault, we can enjoy sin and escape the consequences.  But He's wrong.  Sin truly is a DIY disaster.