All of mankind has been sinful for so long that it's easy to forget that we were originally created "in God's image" i.e. perfect and without sin.

This reminder brings up two more questions:

God created human beings with a free will. This means we have the freedom to choose. Freedom to choose chocolate or vanilla, Chevy or Ford, white or wheat, etc... Try to imagine a world in which no one had the freedom to choose... Yuck!

But included in that ability to choose is the ability to choose whether or not to love, trust and obey God. Creating us with this freedom to choose is evidence of God's great love for us. He could have created us with the ability to do nothing but love, trust and obey him. But that would have made us all like "robots." He loves us too much to do that.

One of the truths about God is that he doesn't force anyone to love, trust or obey him. He's done just about everything conceivable to make us want to love, trust and obey him, but he loved us too much to force us to do that. He gave us a free will.

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve used their free will to choose to distrust and disobey God - to sin. Which leads to the second question:

This simply gave God a chance to show us not just that he loves us, but how he loves us: Unconditionally. God's love is perfect love - love that is given even when the other party had done absolutely nothing to deserve it. As the Apostle Paul reminded us: "God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us."

God sent his own Son to take the punishment for our sins our place in just to restore our relationship with him. What an awesome display of love!

(Of course, true to his character, he still won't force anyone to accept this restored relationship that Jesus purchased. Unfortunately, many still use their freedom to reject him.)

Loving us enough to give us freedom of choice, and still loving us when we chose to sin shows this simple truth about our God: