“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5). When Eve and later Adam partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil so they might, as the serpent promised them, be as gods, knowing good and evil, the first thing that happened is that they discovered that they were naked. To be like God is to lay ourselves bare and exposed before all of creation. To be like God is to abandon the walled garden of safety and attain such a level of vulnerability that our whole sense of self is swallowed up by something greater. To be like God is to know not just the good but also the evil. For better or for worse, God loves each and every one of us. He loves us because He can't know with absolute certainty what we are going to choose to do next. Nothing brings Him greater pleasure than when we choose to do what’s right, even when we are confused and full of doubts and suffering beyond belief. And on the other hand, nothing brings God greater pain when we choose to rebel against Him, even when He exhausts every effort to entice and persuade and prepare the way before us to follow Him and keep His commandments. If we want to be like our Heavenly Father, we have to come to grips with the fact that following down this path will leave us naked and exposed to knowledge that is both too wonderful and too terrible for us to bear. This knowledge will force us out of our safe little walled gardens where we didn't know or care about anyone or anything except our own happiness. This knowledge will multiply our sorrows and our joys. God does not shield Himself off or hide Himself away from any piece of knowledge, good or evil, but is in and through all things because He has allowed all things to go in and through Him. We can't gain more knowledge of good and evil unless we allow ourselves to be humble and vulnerable and naked, and we can't achieve the Salvation and Exaltation outlined in God's plan for us without knowledge of both good and evil. We might as well get used to the strange mix of excitement and terror, triumph and tragedy, betrayal and forgiveness, because to be as Gods is to know good and evil. Eternal life is not going to be all sunshine and roses and celestial choirs. It's going to be one beautiful, glorious mess and we won't be able to get enough of it.
