The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Genesis 3:12-13

Police said Jennifer Brown stole some things from a Holiday Inn in Big Beaver, Pennsylvania.
They said she pilfered some sheets, an alarm clock, a coffee pot, a basket and a hair-dryer. Grand total for the theft was somewhere around $206.

"Not me," said Brown. "It was my evil twin sister who did the stealing.

While police were investigating the evil twin sister, they received a phone call from Brown. She said they could call off the investigation because her evil twin had returned all the things she had taken.

Sure enough. The things were back, exactly as Brown had said they would be.

So, case closed? Nope. In their investigation -- an investigation which had them talking to Brown's family -- they found Jennifer has no twin sister, evil or otherwise. The twin sister was just an invention to whom Jennifer could pass the buck and place the blame -- just like Adam and Eve up above.

Now we may not be as direct in our blame-passing as were Adam and Eve, and we may not be as creative as was Jennifer Brown, but that doesn't change anything. Sinful humanity, of which we are a part, loves to place the blame for all that is evil on someone else. We've found it's comfortable and convenient to blame a spouse, a sibling, a boss, a circumstance or situation.

We like the idea of making ourselves look good, while we make someone else look bad.

Of course, that doesn't fly with the Lord. In Eden's garden the Lord showed He held every soul accountable for his own misdeeds. In prison parlance we had "done the crime," so we had to "do the time." Unfortunately, the time we had to do was forever and the place we had to do it was hell.

This is why you and I ought to be eternally grateful for the Savior who had done no crime still took our evil misdeeds and carried them to the cross. There, having completed a life led without any sin of His own, the Christ died carrying our sins. In short, He died so we might live. He rose from the dead to assure us we need not die.

Jesus is God's Good News, which needs to be shared with everyone, with the exception, of course, of evil, non-existent twin sisters.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, we humans have always enjoyed passing the responsibility for our sins on to others. How thankful we should be to have a Savior who took our sins and disposed of them. May we be as ready to praise Him as we are to blame others. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: 2 Chronicles 22    Joel 1    2 Corinthians 9

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