15. D is NOT the Answer

"Sir, are you trying to trick us?”

“That means we should put D because he probably trying to confuse us.”

“I’m putting D! That means to put D!”

In three of my five classes today, I had students respond in this way upon seeing my board. There was a test today. It never fails that I have a student in first period visit my desk halfway through the test after discovering an error. Why can’t I ever create a test without errors? Nevertheless, it happened again this morning. One of the errors was on #15, and so to help the students, I wrote on the board: D is not the answer.

Students suspected a conspiracy. I was baffled. Would the teacher really scheme against them in hopes of fooling them into a poorer grade? Don’t they know I deeply want them to succeed? Even after I tried to assure them D was not the answer, one or two still publicly questioned it. Don’t they trust my heart towards them?

Then it hit me: I wonder if a similar scenario occurred in the garden. God has just created everything to perfection. Everything was good; He said so. Adam and Eve had a whole world to discover and explore. We don’t know how much time existed between God resting and the Fall, but I’m assuming it was long enough for the newly weds to take some walks in the garden with God. He was there, present and accounted for. No absentees on record. They had the chance to know him, to ask questions, to get to know his heart for them.

In the midst of this time, he wrote on the dry-erase board: Do not eat from that tree. I can hear Adam and Eve giving familiar responses: “Sir, are you trying to trick us? That means we should eat from the tree, right? God is probably holding something good from us.”

I can’t believe it; those two had the chance to literally walk with God in the garden, engage his heart, and yet, they distrusted it. Adam and Eve doubt God’s intentions. That’s no different than my students. No different than me when things don’t go the way I want them to. I have trouble believing God’s intentions towards me are good. Especially during hard circumstances or when I read His commands, yet want to disobey them. And yet, plainly the life of Jesus proves the intent of His heart.