why the tree?

A question has turned up on several blogs that I visit and it sounds like this: "Why did God put that tree there?"

Why was there a tree that gave man a chance to choose to disobey God? Why did God not choose to avoid the fall of man?

I have a suspicion that part of the reason is that He wanted us to know the side of Him that is called Grace. Would we ever have known without that tree?

I'm planning to read Philip Yancey's book "What's so amazing about grace?" after "Where is God when it hurts?". I've had both books for a long, long time and I hope I won't get an overdose if I read them one after the other. An overdose of good stuff to ponder, that is. I'll let you know...

In the mean time, if anyone has an idea of why that tree had to be in the garden, do let me know!

soccer and soap

Sunday evening on my way home with a detour, I met some Brazilians who invited me to watch Brazil-Croatia in the World Cup, the match that was on last night. I ended up going there and taking GJ along and we had the time of our lives. Those Brazilians know how to celebrate soccer! They came with drums and dancing girls dressed in their flag. I’ll support them solely because their fans are that cool! So today we’re going to get ourselves some Brazilian shirts, so that next time we won’t feel like the odd ones out.

We went to my place afterwards and got into a slightly philosophic mood. My housemate had left her soap bubble gear in my room and so GJ was blowing through the plastic circle creating beautiful things and being captivated.

As we watched the soap bubbles he started pointing out how perfect they are: Perfectly round, because they take up the most convenient shape (ever seen a soap bubble turn out triangular or star-shaped?), thin and fragile, but floating, because they are that light.

We watched two of them interfere with each other and bounce off harmoniously, without breaking. “People should be like soap bubbles,” GJ concluded. “When they meet they don’t need to hurt each other.”

I reckon you could build sermons on this. Does anyone here want to have a go? I'm still thinking about the way they reflect the light that shines on them.

For further study on the phenomena of soap bubbles, I would direct you to the website “Floating Soap Bubbles”.