Checkers, played by Queen Hatasu, of Egypt dates back to 3000 B.C. The game of Life got its start in 1860. Monopoly and Scrabble made their entrance in the early 1900’s. But, the oldest game, although not a board game, originated at the dawn of civilization. It’s called The Blame Game, and Adam registered the patent for the entire human race.
After Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they heard God walking in the garden. “Quick! Hide!” Adam urged, as he dashed behind a tree. Eve ducked behind a bush.
God asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you should not eat?”
Adam followed the first rule of The Blame Game. He blamed Eve, and he blamed God for giving the woman to him. God asked Eve, “What have you done?” She had read the same rule and blamed the serpent.
Six thousand years later, I played the same Blame Game ~~
I was 14. Four of us girls decided to try smoking in the kitchen of my parents’ house while they were gone. We lit the cigarette, which I had taken from my dad’s pack of Camels. We sputtered and choked ourseles silly, but persisted until there was nothing left except the squashed, lipstick-smudged cigarette butt in the ashtray. We laughed and giggled at our misserable attempt to be what we thought would be sophisticated smokers all the way to the corner drug store for a cherry coke.
That evening after dinner, Mom aksed, “Anyone for dessert?” Our whole family voiced our delight for the rare treat. But, instead of dessert, Mom set the ashtray with the lone lipstick-smudged cigarette butt, in the center of the cleared table. She sat down, cast her penetrating eyes at me, and asked, “Whose is this?”
I felt hot. Fear and guilt gripped me like bark on a tree.” I looked down at my plate. “Rob’s,” I mumbled.
Milk shot out of my older brother’s nose, Dad sat with a non-descript look, my younger siblings fled the kitchen, and I broke out in a sweat. I wished I could have run with my younger brother and sister, but there was no place to run, and no place to hide.
Fear has a way of quickeing the senses when caught in a sin. The defense mechanism swings into protection mode. We try to run. We try to hide. Then, we do what comes natural to human nature – we blame others to escape the consequences of our sin.
I don’t think anyone, since Adam’s day, has ever read the rule that explains consequences. If so, The Blame Game would have been extinct long ago.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But the good news is: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
I attest to the truth of the last statement in the directions of how to play The Blame Game: “There are no winners. No one has ever won. Never has and never will.”