It feels sinful for my eyes to be so strongly locked onto the screen. Whether television or animation, the escapism of entertainment media has seemingly no bounds. No matter who you are, there is something to appeal to you. This world and its nature must be perfect because it’s God’s perfect creation. So why do so many choose to ignore it for the screen? The truth is this perfect world is perfectly balanced, not perfectly for man. When God created the Garden of Eden for Adam whom God would later spawn Eve from his rib, it was paradise for man. No plant or critter was fairly treated nor stood a chance against man. This is why our escapism exists. Man has tried so very hard to replicate that paradise without God: commercial farming, “unfair” treatment of animals that don’t stand a chance and are born to slaughter, homes protecting us from the environment… Alas do not fear, none of our self-sustaining deeds are evil for God created the world for us to conquer, (just read Genesis), they are neutral. We can doom ourselves or save ourselves, we have his divine free will. When we are ingested within that world on the screen we are consumed by the reflection of our perception of paradise, ever-changing throughout the ages as man’s perception of such a place is ever-changing. That said my warning to you is this: What does God say about the nature of man and earthly pleasure? Would a closer relationship with God be through a screen, or his perfect creation? Regardless of your feelings toward it? God never said it would be easy to be become close to him, nor did he say you had to feel it was “fair”. In fact, James 1:2-4 expresses quite the opposite, “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” What man did bred our punishment of mortality, however it is a gift to once again grow closer to God. The apple was not a test, it was a choice. It was the embodiment of our free will to forsake our own creator. Yet he did not forsake us. Only through accepting our reality, with all the pain and happiness openly, and the Holy Spirit in our hearts can we truly build a strong connection with God. Hiding behind a screen will never bring forth your salvation, wise men.