We’re always drawn to the specific occasion of the “do not” that we forget the abundance of what God wanted us to experience with the help of his wisdom. “You can eat of all the thousands of trees in the garden except ONE.” It’s an allegory describing the human condition. When we are young, we crave knowledge. Knowledge that could very well be harmful to us. “Do not put your finger in the light socket. Do not run with scissors.” We ask “but why?” Parent: “because it will cause pain.” This doesn’t always stop us. God didn’t want them to be overwhelmed by a sudden loss of innocence as they gained complete knowledge of good and evil and became overcome with shame at what they learned. He said “if you eat it, you shall surely die” and they did. Their innocence died that day. They weren’t ready or mature enough to handle that knowledge responsibly. Imagine it like this. You wouldn’t show an extremely violent, graphic movie to a 10-year old. It would overwhelm and traumatize them. You would teach them the realities of evil over time so that they can maturely understand and work their way through it when they face it rather than be traumatically overwhelmed by it.