So why did He do it?

There is a lot that is mysterious about God. I doubt I'll ever know why He created something rather than nothing. That there is something (the cosmos) rather than nothing (not the cosmos) is, perhaps, the fundamental philosophical problem but getting to the "why" is something altogether different I dare say. There has been something kicking around in my head since I finished reading Schaeffer's Genesis in Space and Time that has cleared up something for me. Again, maybe I am simple, but my intellectual curiosity is satisfied in regards to God's command to Adam and Eve to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Apart from the knowledge that tree imparted and the implications of eating from it from that perspective, I always wondered why God commanded obedience at all. Schaeffer remarks that obedience of the created to the Creator is the only love language that is appropriate or even rational. I wouldn't think much of the professions of love that my children would have for me if they didn't obey me when I told them to do something. God doesn't think much of mine when I treat Him in that way as well. Obedience, for Adam and Eve, not only communicated their dependence on God, but also was an expression of their love for Him.

What is equally striking is that God wanted to be in a love relationship with His creation at all. The fact that He created us in His image, declaring it multiple times in Genesis, is a mystery in and of itself. He tends the other creatures He created, but He loves man. He receives praise from the rest of His creation, but He communicates with man. The capacity for man to love God and the expression of God's love for man is something that I find staggering.

Expressing love through obedience is the only proper response to a Creator and King. He is those things and so much more.