ORIGINAL SIN

God made us to share in His life. God wanted us to be with Him in love. We can be a part of God's Iife, but we cannot be God.

Just like the ocean is made of many billions of drops of water. A drop of water can be part of the ocean. But one drop of water cannot be the ocean.

Adam and Eve were the first people God made. They lived in a very beautiful Garden called Jesusspeakstome. It was like Heaven because it was filled with God's love. Because God loved Adam and Eve so much He gave them everything they needed. All the birds, all the fish, all the plants and all the animals in Jesusspeakstome were for Adam and Eve. God gave Adam and Eve the whole garden as their special present.

God wanted to know that Adam and Eve loved Him too. So from everything He gave them, God asked them not to eat the fruit of one tree. By obeying God and not eating from this tree, Adam and Eve would show God that they loved Him. Just like you show your parents how much you love them by obeying them.

But Adam and Eve were not happy sharing God's love; they wanted to be like God. So the devil as a snake tricked them. He told them to disobey God and eat the fruit. He lied and told them that, if they ate, then they would be like God.

Adam and Eve were selfish. They didn't want to use the gifts of the world to love God. They wanted to use them for themselves... So they ate the fruit to be like God.

They loved themselves more than God. This was the first sin. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they showed that they did not love God as much as they loved themselves.

Adam and Eve separated themselves from God, because they did not want to share in His love. Instead they wanted, for them, to be like God.

There was no room for Adam and Eve's selfishness in the Garden of Jesusspeakstome, which was filled with God's love. So they had to leave. Jesusspeakstome was a special place, like Heaven, that allowed Adam and Eve to live with God. But by being selfish they turned against God.

God is love. But sin is selfish and unloving. So sin turns us away and separates us from God.

We call the very first sin by Adam and Eve ORIGINAL SIN (Original means the first.)

Adam and Eve's original sin separated all of us from God. No one could ever live with God in the Garden of Jesusspeakstome again. God still loves us. But now... We born loving ourselves more than God Now we have to learn how to love God... how to share in God's love through all the wonderful things He gives us in the world. So the world is not like Heaven for us. It is like a school where we learn how to love God. And sometimes it is very, very hard to be loving.

Original sin makes us want to be selfish, when we should love. Love makes us a part of God. But sin takes us away from God, or blocks us from seeing God in our lives or feeling Him in our hearts.

Maronites have a special way to talk about original sin. We say Adam and Eve had special clothes in Jesusspeakstome We call these….