Back to Eden

“Love the Lord your God, and love one another. Love one another as he loves. Love with strength and purpose and with passion and no matter what comes against you. Don’t weaken. Stand against the darkness, and love. That’s the way back to Eden. That’s the way back to life.”  Francine Rivers, author of Redeeming Love

It’s been over six thousand years since man lived in the Garden of Eden, and in God’s original plan. We’ve come a long ways since then and we know it hasn’t all been good, or as things should be. In fact it’s not even close. 

In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth, and very living creatures. And on the earth the Lord also planted a beautiful garden called Eden, where He placed man and his wife that were made in His image. They were His crowning glory of all creation. Adam was to cultivate it and maintain the garden. And the Lord said them, "Be fruitful and multiply." And the God blessed them and saw that everything He had done was very good.

The Lord also planted two trees in its midst of that Garden; along with a warning about one of them--the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The other was the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were extremely blessed, beautiful and free; free to choose the way they would want to live.
 

Adam and Even were to be the prototype for all God’s children. They were created to have fellowship with the Father in the cool of the day and to obey His words. This was meant to be God’s plan for all mankind, but they failed. The Lord had given Adam the authority over all the earth and every living creatures, and the task of naming them. Yet, Adam yielded that authority to another voice; while his wife was deceived by a serpent hanging in the forbidden tree. Thus they both ate the deadly fruit from that tree thinking it would make them wiser and like God. Only ofter they had eaten it did they realized their mistake, but it was too late. The consequences were astronomical; removing the breath of life from all creation; not just themselves. God had no choice, but to drive them out from His beautiful Garden with the Tree of Life. All creation would now have to experience a different life; one of many hardships, curses and even death.

Thus the world was broke because mankind abandon his relationship with God in order to asserted his independence and the ability to determine his own destiny. 

However, our heavenly Father has always desired for all His children and creation to see and experience the things the way they were meant to be. Thus He made a wonderful plan through His son Jesus Christ, the Second or Last Adam to restore all that was lost and broken. So that we could one day return back to Eden, also called Paradise. However, it would be the new and improved and glorious Garden, where we will once again walk with Him in the cool of the day in our glorified bodies. And in this Garden of Eden there will be no serpent, or the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For this is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth with the Tree of Life in its midst and the River of Life flowing through it.

I don’t know how long this will all take, or how God will even do it. But the scriptures says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away..." (Rev. 21:1) However, we can all still get a taste of heaven and Eden now, by faith, as we eat from the Tree of Life and wait in His presence by faith. Abba Father still desires for us to walk in the cool of the day with Him even now as He restores our soul by the work of His Holy Spirit. 

The Lord made a promise and covenant with His friend Abraham that extends to a thousand generations. Thus, for mankind maybe we have just begun this journey home; back to Eden, the Father’s Garden and His original plan. We can begin this journey by taking one step at a time with Christ Jesus, the Chief Gardener. He has also given us the task (Acts 1:8) to pass the fruit from the Tree of Life along with its seeds to plant into the next generation. Then the whole world will blossom into the beautiful Garden of Eden.

One night a number of years ago, the Lord gave me a very short song. “Jesus, you are the Garden of Eden of my soul.” That was it, so I went outside and sang it over and over, as I walked through the snow on the ground.