Day 26 perspective

 I had a bit of a rabbit hole thought today.  Adam and Eve before the fall had no knowledge of good and evil but presumably had knowledge about everything else.  Created in the image of an all knowing God, did they therefore know everything about plants and animals and how to build the perfect shelter out of bamboo?  And more importantly, did they know each others thoughts?  Jesus clearly knew what people were thinking when He was on earth.  He knew peoples pasts and all about their current circumstances  before they said a word.  So did Adam and Eve have this ability too, before the fall?

The reason I started thinking about this was because I was reminding myself yet again that I only see a part of someone else's story and I never know how someone else is feeling about their story.   God has annoyingly given us the ability to empathise with our fellow man based on our ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes.  And yet we can never really understand what it is like to be someone else.  We are on the outside and every judgement we make about someone else is filtered through a lens of our own experience.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl21j_py1rM&t=24s

This is funny.  But it makes the point that however hard you try, if you've never had a baby there is no way of knowing what it is like to give birth.  No words, videos, or tens machines can convey what it is like.  And the thing is, that even if you have given birth, your experience won't be the same as mine.  You probably have a reasonable idea of what my experience was like.  But you cant know.  Because you aren't me.

I know why we cant ever really properly understand someone else's experience.  If we did we would be like God.  We wouldn't need God because people would meet the need He wants to meet for us. We would turn to people not to Him.  But the downside for us is that our judgements, our understanding, our counsel and help is always conditional and therefore it is sub-optimal.  As an exhorter I long to be able to come alongside people and say ' I know how you feel.  Ive been there.  This is what helped me.  This is what you need to do'   And indeed I have said these things hundreds if not thousands of times. But I mostly forget that the person I'm talking to is not me. Their experience is different from mine and their response is different too.  Their needs wont be the same as my needs in the same situation.  I can offer all the help and words and comfort in the world ( and I'm not saying it is pointless to do that. of course our presence and support can be so valuable and vital) but at the end of the day I will never really know how they feel and what they really need.

Which is why the best and only thing we can do for our fellow man is to push them into Jesus.  The one who really knows.  Truly understands.  Feels what we feel.  I am really quick to offer advice.  I always want to help.  I pray with people all the time in all sorts of situations and circumstances but my starting point is often praying what I think someone needs rather than inviting Jesus who knows exactly what is needed to do His thing.  I get in the way.   He knows my heart and Im sure He works away regardless.  But I constantly need to remind myself that I only see in part, understand in part.  Sometimes that part is helpful.  Common bonds of shared experience are precious and definitely can be helpful. But the only one who has fully shared our experiences and who knows all is Jesus.

I wonder how Adam and Eve coped with going from knowing each other in every possible way to suddenly realising that they were on their own in their own skins.  That was the start of every marital misunderstanding and relational miscommunication in history. Poor them. They lost more than we will ever know