a God of free will

I know it's a really novel take, but... The fact that God puts the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the story of the Garden of Eden suggests that this is a being who cares about free will.

Recap: in the story of the Garden of Eden, humanity dwells in paradise where they have everything they need or want as ordained by God. The only thing God tells them is that there's a tree in the garden that bears 'The Fruit Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil' and that they mustn't eat of it or they'll die. We know the story, it's all over our culture, all over our understanding of the world as humans - innocence and guilt, actions and consequences, choices and judgement.

What I always wondered, even as a kid hearing this story in Sunday School, is why God put the tree there in the first place. It took me decades (and assorted sermons by assorted pastors) to come to the conclusion that the tree was there because God wanted people to have the choice: Him or not!Him.

He doesn't want slavish obedience or blind trust. He wants us to see the options and choose Him anyway.

Yes, it's a story; I don't think the Garden of Eden is literal - it's the story about a God whose instincts are for Order out of chaos, whose desire is for the personal rather than the distant, who wants people to have the ability to choose of their own free will rather than being forced into it.

This story also tells me that our God is a God of free will, of choice, of options.

And not just decisions of 'good' and 'evil', as we so often get caught up in - I hear the US Evangelical tradition has a "God watches over every single decision you make" thread in it, like God cares whether you eat beans on toast for breakfast, or a hot pocket in the microwave. IDEK.

There'll doubtless be a lot of "well, then He gets mad that they choose other than Him, doesn't He?" My dears, do we not talk about the consequences of choices? All those pro-life people who suddenly find themselves unable to get a D&C for a miscarriage because it's functionally indivisible from 'an abortion as contraceptive'? Consequences of choices, consequences of action. If we live in a house and insult the owner's capabilities, hospitality, and intelligence, does the owner not have the free will and choice to turf us out? And under that paradigm, God may have closed us out of the house, but we're still living on His property if he made the world and everything in it. And He spoke no less than the truth - all of us will die, our bodies will rot, our beauty will fade, and we will return to the dust from whence we came.

The thing is, God values choice so much, He's willing to lose us just so we have the possibility of choosing Him. Personally, I think that's some pretty serious dedication to the idea of free will, and the right to choose.

Us choosing Him vs Him choosing us? Let's not get into predestination. That way lies madness and an awful lot of philosophy, and I'm just a systems analyst!