It makes sense to me that in God’s creation there was no deception, only truth. The fall took the truth God created and inverted it into deception. We see this in Genesis, where the snake duped Eve into believing the forbidden fruit was “good” and not harmful. (Genesis 3:1-5)

It makes sense to me that in a fallen world all of God’s virtues can be inverted into what they are not. The benefit then becomes the burden, the friend becomes the foe, and prosperity twists into perversion.

It makes sense to me that symbols can be a virtue to us in the fallen world. Yet when symbols turn into idols, we have incidentally turned a cheek on God and fall right back into the snare of deception.

When the necklace has to be worn, or it is considered bad luck. When the job is lost, and our identity feels threatened. When the money in the bank equals our self-worth.

A good symbol is nothing more than a reminder. A good symbol is nothing more than a mirror reflecting God’s truth back to us. Let us not pursue the image in the mirror as a shadow of the truth we want, but to always look past the image to be reminded of the actual truth as God created it… Then we will discover the truth that God created us from and the truth of what God created us for.

Verses to study:

• 1 Corinthians 10:14

• Colossians 3:5

• 1 John 5:21

• 1 Corinthians 10:21