the Fall of man -- God's plan

It amazes me more and more every time I think about it. But God planned the Fall. He not only knew it was going to happen, he made it happen, and he wanted it to happen. If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned in the garden...so what? We'd all be perfect? Sure we'd walk with God in the cool of the day and would see him face to face, but we wouldn't know redemption. We wouldn't know what is to be a sinner that God loves unconditionally. To be adopted. My favorite picture of salvation is found in Ezekiel 16. It's graphic. And that's the state that we are in. We are the ugly baby left to die until the King comes and clothes us, he adorns us, gives us his riches and palace. And we are the ones who take those riches and use them on vile and contemptible things, things that make us enemies of the one who gave us all. And yet he still loves and tries to win us back. We wouldn't know that love if it were not for the Fall. We wouldn't be His Sons and Daughters, we wouldn't be heirs to the Kingdom through and with Christ. We wouldn't know, and he amazes me.