He had found a one-room flat with a double bed and two overstuffed chairs that could be pushed together to make a wonderful crib. There was no refrigerator, but a handsome windowsill would keep my milk cold. There was no stove, but we had a hot plate to warm soup and a great little mom-and-pop restaurant waited just around the corner. What more could we need? Oh yes, there was a bathroom—down the hall!
My parents had considered their situation and made a life-changing choice, and we lived with the consequences of that choice from then on.
As a consequence of my parents’ choice, not only did we live for a time in a one-room flat but I got to grow up near the nation’s capital, surrounded by museums, art galleries, libraries, streetcars, and buses. I could go and see just about anything my curious mind wanted to take in.
As a consequence of my parents’ choice, my dad ultimately found a good job and was able to provide a modest but stable income for our family for his entire working life.
As a consequence of my parents’ choice, my mother met a school principal who invited her to teach in an elementary school. For more than twenty years, my mother taught fifth grade in an excellent school system.
As a consequence of my parents’ choice, I was able to gain a college education without struggling to pay for it.
As a consequence of my parents’ choice, I was brought up in a solid, loving church where I heard the Word of God on a regular basis. (It took a while for the consequences of that choice to be revealed, but it was an outcome of their choice, nonetheless.)
As I watched, listened, and experienced my parents’ journey, I became intimately acquainted with the reality that choices must be made. I learned that it is impossible to go through life without deciding between the possibilities that wait behind Doors One, Two, and Three. Trying to play it safe by only looking at the Doors of Opportunity and declining to fling one open simply sets in motion a different set of consequences. We cannot avoid making choices; it’s an integral part of being human that goes back to the very beginning of time. God purposefully left choice in our hands. He could have made us little automatons, but instead He chose to give us free will, leaving us with the responsibility and the pleasure of making our own decisions.
The First Taste of Consequences
Eve, of Adam and Eve fame, was the first girl in all of history to make a choice—and the first to face the consequences of that choice. Let’s take a quick look at the drama that played out in the garden of Eden so long ago.
The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal GOD had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’” (Gen. 3:1–3 MSG)