What Was the Forbidden Fruit?

The sun shone brilliantly today against the azure, cloudless sky. It warmed my soul. It makes my heart glad and is music to my spirit.

    It is the first day in a long time that I have felt any real energy and motivation. What a challenge not to overdo it! I may have gone just a tad overboard but productivity has been a word commonly used to describe me in the past . . . always doing something; always creating something—until recently that is. I felt a welcome spark of the old me not the aging me.

     This morning I pondered the ‘forbidden fruit’ from the Genesis story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I am not infrequently amazed at the bits of misinformation the world has accepted as gospel. Case in point—there is NO mention of an apple. Surprised? Many would be.

     All my life I have been told that Eve took the first bite of the apple leading Adam into temptation. There are a good many points of this story that we could debate but I will stick to the ‘fruit’ for this discussion.  As a result of this misinformation, we have what is commonly known as Adam’s apples.

     Now I am a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to apples. There are my favorites for different uses but for eating fresh I prefer a good Honeycrisp or a new variety I tried just this week called Kanzi. Yum! For me fruit is nature’s candy and I salivate at the mere thought of some delectable fruits.

    Anyway, I digress. It seems to me that the forbidden fruit had to be something that Eve found irresistible. As much as I like apples I can think of other fruits that I would be hard pressed to resist.

     Just imagine if you will that the forbidden fruit was perhaps a small, seedless, skinless watermelon . . . or a fresh pineapple with a scrumptious, tender outer covering . . . or a juicy, succulent plum or peach . . . or an enormous peeled grape. Or perhaps it was something exotic such as a star fruit or dragon fruit? Whatever it was it had to be a fruit that created a craving strong enough for her to succumb, despite Satan enticing her to eat it.

     As I pondered this, I also asked myself, “What is it that I desire enough to reject the gospel truths I know . . . or to be disobedient?”  My answer is nothing that I have been faced with for certain. It becomes more and more apparent day by day for me to recognize without hesitation that there is NOTHING this world has to offer that is worth relinquishing the blessings that come from living the gospel to my fullest capacity.

      While the sun warms our bones the Son warms my heart and soul. Seek those little rays of Sonshine in everything you do