Original Sin - Last Word

So what about children in talking about this concept of "original sin"? That's a good question. How could anybody look at a newborn child and think of anything "sinful" being associated with such an innocent creature? We were recently blessed with newborn twin grandsons. I don't look at these two little boys and think anything about "original sin."

Someone once described original sin as being born without an immunity to a disease with which we will ultimately be afflicted. Such a condition doesn't make a person innately "bad" as much as it makes a person susceptible in some inevitable way.

My wife and I thought about our granddaughters, 3 1/2 years old and fifteen months old. Both are sweet creatures, filled with love and testimonies to the goodness of God. At some point both girls have been taught about things they are not to do...mess with the buttons on the TV or computer, touch something hot, climb on to something dangerous, etc. Inevitably they both have defied such directions, knowing fully that they are doing so. I know all the explanations of self-differentiation, boundary testing, and so on. Still, at some level and to varying degrees, something bubbles up in the best of children that pushes them to do even what they know is not in their best interest to do. Where does this, "all the rules are determined by me," phenomenon surface in the humans species in ways that it does not in other creatures of the earth? Some would say that if this does not define original sin, it at least points us in its direction. What begins as reaching for a forbidden knob with a sly look toward one's parents just gets more sophisticated as we age. It can become self-centeredness or it can become altruism which masks a secret addiction to praise. It can become violent, or it can become a controlling approach to relationships. It can become apathy, bigotry, deceit, duplicity or despair. None of us, not even the "best" of us, fully escape it in one form or another. Rescue can only come from beyond.

That's my thought. What's yours? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.