The Forbidden Fruit

Today, Manda and I celebrated our tenth month together.  Since I’ve been feeling sick, we just stayed in at my place and talked about the wedding – made some venue plans, did some registry stuff, etc.

Last week, I bought us pomegranates to eat together.  My dear friend Meredith introduced me to them a couple of years ago, and then I got addicted to Pomegranate 7Up (it’s no Dr. Pepper, but it’s still quite delicious).  So I got a couple for Manda and I to eat together, and after dinner, we peeled one of them.

If you’ve never peeled a pomegranate, it’s quite the adventure.  The outer shell/peel is pretty thick; I usually just cut the whole thing in half with a knife.  The actual fruit is a small bit of pulp that surrounds the hundreds of seeds individually.  The seeds are all clumped together and dispersed throughout the fruit, with the clumps of seeds separated by thin peel membranes.  So to get the seeds out, you have to sit there and break the fruit apart and pop them into a bowl.  It’s a long, tedious process, unlike eating an apple or banana.

Cute little bugger, no?  No,  More like DELICIOUS LITTLE BUGGER!

I learned some time ago that according to Rabbinic tradition, the pomegranate was the so-called ‘forbidden fruit’ in the Garden of Eden.  I was raised thinking it was an apple, and then wondering if that meant I should not want the doctor to stay away and why my parents always insisted I eat them.  I was quite sure that broccoli was the devil’s fruit in any case.

On second thought, it DOES look rather malicious.  (incidentally, despite their stated disdain for Rabbinic oral tradition, the esteemed Creation Museum portrays Eve boldly offering Adam a… wait for it… pomegranate in their depiction of the Fall.  And yes, since you asked, this is the only point at which Eve is actually looking Adam in the eye.  Always before this she is looking demurely down.)

Tonight, though, I saw the appeal (ahem) of the pomegranate.  You can’t casually grab a pomegranate on your way out the door.  You can’t tack one on to the end of your meal as an afterthought.  Eating a pomegranate takes dedication, time and work.  You have to commit to it.  And really, that’s how I see sin working in my life.  I”m to the point in my life with Christ that I’m not really ‘accidentally’ sinning much anymore.  I know how to treat people.  I know what should come out of my mouth.  I know how I should (and shouldn’t) spend my time and money.  And when I don’t do what I know to be right, it’s not a casual, flippant mistake.

It’s nearly always a conscious, thought out decision to choose my way instead of God’s way.  I pick the fruit, stare at it for a while, and decide it’s good for me.  So I settle down to peel and eat it.  Sometimes – God help me – I even share it around.

Yeah… there are definitely some areas of my life where I’m learning the price for that fruit.  It’s sweet on my lips, but in the end it brings only death.