Back to the Garden

OK...Not the real garden, but you get the idea.

Genesis 1:31  

 

New International Version (NIV)

    ³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. 

Creation in its original state must have been amazing to see.  All created things...nature as we know it plus the atmosphere, space, etc, all in balance and functioning perfectly.  No death.  No want.  No fear.  Man was placed there to be a caretaker and to live there and enjoy it, all in the presence of God.  The Garden was our home, made just for us and uniquely suited to our needs and desires.

Genesis 2

New International Version (NIV)

⁸ Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. ⁹ The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

But it did not stay that way.  When Mankind stepped out of God's will and went his/her own way, then sin entered the world and corrupted it all.  And the result of that was the end of that perfect symbiosis and we were left with the fallen and suffering, groaning creation we have today.

Romans 8:22

New International Version (NIV)

  
²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

And we were banished from the Garden.

 Genesis 3

New International Version (NIV)

²³ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side^[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

 I was watching a documentary about a man named Wavy Gravy.  Not his given name, but his taken name that fits his life perfectly.  Wavy was and is a hippie.  His life is quite interesting and the film was pretty amazing in itself, but it struck me in a way I had never considered before.

The hippie movement of the 60s was an attempt to get back to the garden.  Even the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song speaks to that.  The rejection of the commercial and possession centered life and the societal definition of success, the attempt at community (the commune life), the simple things and a care for creation and human needs.  There was no need in the first Garden.  Life was natural and simple and we were connected to all creation.  There was no poverty or greed.  Everything worked like it was supposed to.

But there was a flaw in the hippie movement.  A flaw that is in any attempt to accomplish anything by our own efforts alone.  They forgot God.  There were gods for sure.  Hallucinogenic drugs.  Sex.  Meditation.  Spiritualism.  But not God.   And without that part, they missed it all.  No Garden.  No way to get there. 

But the Garden is waiting till a future time.  Christ's work on the cross was not just for our redemption, but was far reaching, extending to all creation.  Creation is now groaning and awaiting the time when there is balance and perfection;  man, God, creation in the proper place and relationship; when poverty and suffering and greed and all the things the hippies sought to change in a man-made utopia are finally removed through the shed blood of Christ and the work of His hands.

We will get back to the Garden and maybe we will wear tie-dye there.  Who knows.

Isaiah 65 - A new heaven and a new earth

¹⁷ “See, I will create
   new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
   nor will they come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
   in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
   and its people a joy.
¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem
   and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
   will be heard in it no more.
 ²⁰ “Never again will there be in it
   an infant who lives but a few days,
   or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
   will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach^[a] a hundred
   will be considered accursed.
²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them;
   they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
   or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
   so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
   the work of their hands.
²³ They will not labor in vain,
   nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
   they and their descendants with them.
²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
   while they are still speaking I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
   and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
   and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
   on all my holy mountain,”
            says the LORD.

Psalm 19 experience

 Psalm 19 ^1-6

    For the director of music. A psalm of David. ¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice^[b] goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
 ⁵ It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
   like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens
   and makes its circuit to the other;
   nothing is deprived of its warmth. 

I was picking up my son to go to a church event for the college group and this happened as I was waiting.  Glorious, yes.

I thought of Psalm 19 right away, quoted above in part.  At the conference the first speaker I heard was teaching from this exact text and others that show creation attesting to God's glory.  He noted that the rocks, trees, and sky do a better job of glorifying God consistently than he does in his life outwardly.

I related to that.  My life is still too much about me and my undeserved glory and too little about God and His deserved glory.  I will never match that sunset, not in this life, but perhaps I can do as well as a rock at some point.  If dirt can glorify God, so can I.

Footprints in the Butter

Has it really been almost a year since I blogged here?  Shame on me.

With that, here goes.

"How can you tell if you have an elephant in the refrigerator?  You can see the footprints in the butter."

Yuck, yuck.  The obvious thing here is, that if there is indeed a pachyderm in the old Frigidaire, then it should be so obvious as to not need to look for clues in the butter tub.

How can you tell that you are a Christ follower?  It should be obvious to all around you, including yourself.  You should not need to look for footprints in the butter.

How is your elephant-ness doing?  If we are so like the world around us that the butter is the only clue, perhaps we should change that a bit.

From Psalms:

BOOK I

Psalms 1–41

 ¹ Blessed is the one
   who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
   or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
   and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
   which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
   whatever they do prospers.  ⁴ Not so the wicked!
   They are like chaff
   that the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
   nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
 ⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.