Did you ever drop something made of glass and it broke? When glass shatters, it gets everywhere. And if you get just the smallest piece of glass in you, you have to go to the doctor. You can’t get it out by yourself. Even a piece so small you can’t see it can hurt you very badly. When sin came into the world, it was like glass shattering everywhere.

Before God ever created people, He had made other creatures who lived with Him, like angels. God gave all His creatures a choice whether or not to worship Him. Most of the angels chose to worship God. But others didn’t. Their leader became God’s enemy.

God had created a perfect world. And He had put two perfect people in it. They never did anything wrong. They never got sick. They never fought. Their lives were perfect in paradise. God’s enemy didn’t like seeing people so happy and loving God so much. He decided to tempt them.

Just like the angels, God gave humans a choice whether or not to worship Him. Since they lived in a garden, He used trees to show them their choices. He filled the garden with trees that were good to eat. Trees that would bring life. Then He put one tree in the center of the garden that they could not have. This one would make them understand good and evil, but it would bring eventual death.

God’s enemy came to the Garden of Eden in the shape of a snake and whispered in Eve’s ear, “You should make your own choices instead of obeying God.” She chose to make her own decisions and disobeyed God by eating from the tree. Adam watched her and saw that nothing happened to her right away. He doubted what God had told him. Perhaps the tree would not bring death after all. So he decided he would do the same thing and ate from it.

Just like that, the world was no longer perfect. The glass had broken and there were tiny pieces everywhere. Adam and Eve felt guilt and embarrassment for the first time in their lives.

When God asked them why they disobeyed Him, instead of apologizing, Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the enemy. God forgave them, but they would now live in a world that had pain and death.

God always wants us to choose to obey Him. Even when we don’t understand His instructions, we still need to obey. Even when we’re having a bad day, we still need to obey. Even when we really, really, really don’t want to, we still need to obey. It takes a lot of self-control to obey God, but when we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, He helps us to do it.