I remember asking this same question when I was learning about Christ. I was straight out of a life in Witchcraft. It just seemed stupid and a waste of time and the cause of much pain for God to not just take things into His own hands and do it right from the get go!

I too, couldn't see the 'big picture'. We live our lives, even looking at long lived family members or looking back throughout history, and we think it's 'so long', for all this. But we forget that 'time' is our thing. 'Time' is a concept for humans. For God, it's all happening NOW. He is the same, Yesterday, Today and Forever. That just doesn't mean He is 'unchanging', it means He's always in the 'now'.

The only way I could wrap my head around it, and for awhile I still thought that God was being a 'big jerk' (sorry, but that's honestly how I felt, so I'm sure this person will too), is that it's almost like Satan 'bet' God that we'd NOT choose Him if given the chance. It was like Satan said, 'oh sure, they love you...they HAVE to love you!! If they had a choice, you'd see different!!". So, God gave 'us' a choice. He allowed us to make our own mistakes, but He ALWAYS gave us an 'out' a way back to Him (Jesus is the WAY). He allowed Satan to do his thing. (He even allows the trouble makers free will). and Yes, a lot of people suffer because of that. But, this life, this existence is so very temporary. For God, it's not years and years and eons and eras and all manner of 'time'...it's NOW. It's the twinkling of an eye. And earthly suffering? A blink. A physical life? blink. What is important, what the 'big picture' is all about, is that eternity that we were meant to live with Him. This little bit of song and dance, to show Satan his error, to show Satan his folly, is just a road bump in the grand scheme of things. We forget that our temporal lives are TEMPORARY! It's how we'll spend eternity that matters. Look at Job. He 'got it'...he knew the truth of things. My ancestor wrote a song about it, "It is well with my soul"...look up the history of that hymn.

Yes, God could have bypassed all the junk. Skipped the bad stuff. But, as a parent, if we do everything for our children, do they really learn? Do they 'get it'? How can we be assured that they have learned the lesson and know the truth? Satan forgot one major truth. God knows how the story ends. God did us a favor too, He gave us The Book so we can know too.

It is very hard for someone who has gone through some deep hurts to trust. But really, that's what it is all about. Just letting go, and letting God in. Once they understand that, 'it was for the good of everyone' that the story plays out this way, maybe the faith to believe it was 'for our own good' will help that faith to grow. The bottom line? God never stopped loving us (even when the bad stuff came along)...in fact, He loved us even more. No matter what Satan throws at us, we WIN when we let God in and allow Him to work in us.

We were all designed for Eden...it's just taken us awhile to get there. *kicks the back of the seat, "are we there yet? are we there yet?". Almost.

Blessings~

Suzi