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.