What if we could go back and fix the mistakes we've made?
Would you want to?
There are a handful of things from my past that I've longed to go back and correct. They will likely haunt me for the rest of my life.
Still, as I consider this train of thought, much has to be taken into account.
My first impression is, "I should write a song about this!" But then I think, "No, this is just a blog post."
This time, it's both.
Here are some thoughts mixed with some lyric ideas:
Probably the most famous sin on earth took place in the Garden of Eden. Oh, that garden! All the food they needed. Innocence and honesty in their purist form.
Then, one bad decision:
"Seems to me she was deceived
And took the apple from the tree
Shared it with her helper, friend
And things are not the same since then…
No things are not the same since then."
I wonder if Adam and Eve ever looked back. In those following years of dirty, sweaty toil, did they ever have the conversation?
Eve: "Oh, if I had only told that stupid snake to shut up!"
Adam: "If only I hadn't taken that bite!"
Did they ever fight about it? Was blame ever cast?
Adam: "Why did you have to bring me that confounded fruit!?"
Eve: "You didn't have to eat it, ya know! No one forced it down your throat."
Here's an interesting idea: What would've happened if Eve ate of the fruit but Adam stood his ground and denied it. How would that have changed the world? I'm sure, at some point, mankind would have still screwed up. But what if we hadn't?
Or, what if Eve DID shoo the serpent away…and neither of them partook of the fruit?
Think of the ramifications on life as we know it. Perhaps there would be no sin, no war, no death. But also…no need for Jesus. No blood. No crucifixion. No resurrection. No Christmas. No Easter. What if our story was simply…"God made us and gave us a perfect home?"
Wait…as a musician, I wonder how that would change our hymns? All those beautiful songs celebrating Jesus' victory over death. All those praises to God for His sweet redemption story.
Gone.
"Can we go back in time to right our wrongs?
Would it erase our rhymes?
Would it change our song?
No more sweet refrains of Amazing Grace
Not one single verse with Jesus' name?"
I honestly don't believe man will ever figure out how to travel back in time to change the past. And my gut tells me that's a good thing. But even if we could, I'm sure we'd slip up somewhere else along the way. Maybe we'd create drama some other way. Because, us humans, we thrive on drama!
And now to apply that to my own life. As much as I'd like to go back and change the past, I wonder what I'd miss out on if I did. I wonder what blessings, joys and wonders would never begin, without my sin.
"To erase the bad, you must erase it all
Every joy and blessing fall.
Crimson gone but at what cost?
Precious memories…all are lost."
